Clockwork
by Tiggipi
Summary: Zian is the young heir to his father's company, living out his bland day-to-day life the way his father wishes. On a day off work, Zian buys a copy of Second Life out of boredom. Little does he know just how much the game will change his life.
1. The Day Off

_****__******Disclaimer ****–** __½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo_

_**Note – **This is my first-ever attempt at an OC story!_

_The first few chapters are purposefully vague as to how Zian relates to the original cast of ½ Prince, and they'll be quite thought-heavy, but much more dialogue will come into play once more characters pop up._

* * *

_ "Zian, you should take the day off."_

A day off from work. I could hardly believe those words had come from my father's mouth. I had a somewhat difficult time processing them, as though my father had spoken in a different language I'd never heard before. It wasn't even the weekend and I was allowed a day off. The fear that my employees would cause a disaster in my absence faded somewhat as I rolled those two words around in my mind, contemplating them thoroughly as if they were some sort of philosophical musing.

Day off.

Once I thought about it, I realized I hadn't had a day off in a very long time. In fact, I'd never had one throughout the two years that I'd been a part of the work force. Perhaps my father was becoming more sentimental later in his life, he decided to allow me more time to myself rather than working me to the bone every single day.

As if. The thought of my father being sentimental made me want to laugh at its absurdity. Anyway, he wasn't particularly old at the somewhat seasoned age of forty-seven, so senility was also ruled out immediately.

He would never give me a holiday out of fatherly kindness. All his life, he'd ceaselessly worked himself as hard as he could, and thus he naturally expected those around him to do the same. I had gotten used to it over the years, I supposed. After my older brother left the house over a decade ago when he and I were still in our teens, all of my father's hopes of a son succeeding him were relocated to me. Having work as my entire life had become normal since then. I had nothing better to do, anyway.

But when faced with the opportunity to spend an entire day however I wanted, I didn't quite know what to do with myself. All of my friends were at work and there was nothing at home I would have deemed "entertaining"; I found television programs to be idiotic and I'd never wasted my time on them; I could have done my work at home through my computer, but it was my day off—not a day to do work; and I highly doubted the house staff would keep me company, not that I would have wanted them to in the first place. They always treated me as though my father, who upheld strict hierarchical rules, would dismember them if they so much as made eye contact with me, and I had long-since become disinterested with the prospect of their companionship.

Standing in the center of the perfectly polished floor, I slowly turned around and visually searched my tidy office for something to do. There were hundreds upon hundreds of books written of many topics and genres neatly stacked on shelves built into the glossy, paneled walls of the spacious room, but I had never been one for reading as a pass-time. The books were my brother's. Ones he'd left behind when he'd moved out. They were there simply because I didn't want to get rid of them, not because I was interested at all in reading what they contained. Perhaps they held a hope that he would come back someday, if only to reclaim his own property and leave again.

My eyes landed on my desk, then slid to the old external hard drive I'd placed next to my computer tower several days ago to remind myself to buy a new one. Smiling slightly in bemusement at my strange need for a justifiable reason to leave the house, I took a moment to write down my computer information on a small scrap of paper, scooped up my car keys, then hurried downstairs.

The fact that the maids were bidding me farewell with clasped hands and respectfully inclined heads barely registered in my mind as I left. They treated themselves as tools and pieces of the house rather than human beings. I played along, as I always had. A part of me was thankful they left me alone. I'd had quite enough of people fussing over me during my childhood.

Twenty minutes later as I entered the overly air-conditioned electronics store, I felt somewhat breathless as I looked over the interior, blinking my eyes in the odd dimness after the bright summer sunshine I'd just been comfortably basking in outside. I walked quietly toward the computer section, stepping carefully to avoid attracting unwanted attention to myself.

My first day off was making me feel jumpy. I was filled with the slight tension of excitement one gets when they are somewhere they aren't supposed to be. A tiny part of my mind was half-expecting my father to leap out at me from between the rows of shelved electronics and demand I explain myself to him for not coming into work that morning. Not that he would ever do something so rambunctious. He had a respectable image to uphold as company president, after all.

The computer hard drives were disappointingly easy to find. I bent down, looked over the information on the paper I'd brought, slipped a drive that was compatible with my computer off the shelf, then straightened with a sigh. There must have been something else to do in the store other than pick up that box, buy it and leave. Even staring at the display of computer mice seemed more appealing than going home after such a short and uneventful outing.

I wandered down the aisle, looking here and there in slight boredom. My footsteps paused as I reached the end of the row. To my left was a neat line of laptops; something I didn't need to look at, since my own computer and laptop were both nearly brand new.

Instead, I turned to my right and walked toward a very eye-catching aisle. It wasn't difficult to guess what this section of the store was dedicated to, since no matter where I looked, hovering in the air were larger-than-life holograms of characters I'd never seen before from video games I'd only heard of in passing, if at all. I felt somewhat hesitant to continue as nearly everyone walking about in that area seemed to be in their teens. Not that I was much older at the blossoming age of twenty-four, but I still felt a bit out of place and disconnected from their youthful liveliness I'd long-since been forced to abandon.

Deciding I was over-thinking things, I ignored my discomfort and strode up to the flashiest display there was. It didn't take me long to move on after looking over the abnormally muscular man donning thick, spiky armor, holding an enormous blood-covered hammer in one hand and a battered shield in the other. If anything, that disgusting display made me want to buy whatever game it was even less than I did initially, which was not at all.

My fingers clasped the thin hard drive box a bit tighter and I determinedly forced my gaze to stay straight ahead when I hurried past a violently pink-colored section filled with giggling teenage girls. I wondered if their vision would be okay after looking at all of that for so long. Even simply seeing that horrid color out of the corner of my eyes for a only few seconds, everything seemed to have a slightly green tint afterward.

As my interest in the store was beginning to sink to a dangerously low level, I paused and looked back the way I'd come. I'd passed a very out-of-place, calm-looking set of shelves between the numerous ostentatious game exhibits.

Without turning my head too much, so I didn't have to see that blindingly pink place again, I stepped back and curiously ran my eyes over the large screen placed above the display. A lovely, sunny field with a few odd-looking people walking through the long grass faded out and was replaced with a dreary-looking cliff with several ugly monsters crawling about. That scene was soon exchanged for a brief glimpse of the inside of a lively, torch-lit tavern, filled with people drinking and eating at wooden tables.

I watched as the picture changed several more times, each showing a different place, then the screen faded to black. The name _Second Life_ appeared a moment later in large, white letters, with a short description of the virtual reality game underneath.

While the slide show of in-game clips resumed, I glanced down with slight intrigue at the stacks of boxes, large ones labeled with _Gaming Helmet + Second Life Game Cartridge_ on my left, much smaller ones labeled with only _Second Life Game Cartridge_ on my right. I had almost no experience when it came to games of any sort. The one instance when I'd played a video game when I was younger was very abrupt and short-lived. In fact, I doubted the occasion could have even been labeled as a gaming experience. Only moments after I'd turned on the game, it had been immediately snatched away and disposed of by one of my guardians, because it was apparently taking time from "more important things." As such, I'd never gotten the opportunity to play another. But this game, _Second Life_, seemed quite a bit more inviting than the others on sale. Perhaps it could relieve my boredom.

I hesitantly reached out and pulled one of the larger boxes off its shelf, my heart pounding as I imagined what my father would say if he saw me picking it up. Feeling a bit rebellious, I quickly wrapped an arm around the bulky package and glanced cautiously around the aisle as if someone was going to take it away from me.

No one was paying me any attention, aside from the normal amount of brief looks, and I mentally slapped myself for being so ridiculously self-conscious. Where had my normally calm and bland demeanor gone? Never had something evoked such a bizarre mood in me, as though I was about to partake in some guilty pleasure I hadn't known I had a weakness toward.

Gripping both of the boxes tighter, I smiled faintly while I walked to the checkout, once again feeling as if I was doing something I shouldn't. As I put the boxes down on the counter beside the cash register, I tried to shake off my cautiousness. After all, it was my day off and I was allowed to do as I pleased. But I still knew my father would not be happy with me at all if he found out I'd spent my day playing games rather than doing something he would deem productive. I could clearly hear his quiet, monotonous voice in my head as if he was right there beside me telling me what a waste it was.

_ "What a waste."_

I'd heard those words before on more than one occasion. They were usually spoken in hindsight over my brother's departure. As much as I loved my brother, sometimes I couldn't help but agree with my father's disappointed words. After all, my brother was a very talented person. One my father's company could have used and benefited from greatly. But they were stuck with the insignificant me instead. What a waste.

With a polite nod of thanks to the cashier, I left the store after paying and glanced down at the bags in my hands. My mood, which had been soured with my thoughts of the past, was lifted a bit as the _Second Life_ box invitingly stared up at me.

Rummaging around in the pocket of my casual black slacks, I pulled out my car keys and sighed while I unlocked my car, watching the little distortions in the air from heat roiling off the black paint. Though I was anxious to return home and try the game, I was somewhat annoyed with myself for not having the foresight to wonder just how I was supposed to get back into my room without anyone noticing what I was carrying. I doubted any of the staff at home would inform my father I was playing games, if only to avoid getting themselves into trouble for bringing up such _terrible_ news, but I doubted even more that he was going to allow a day to pass by without keeping tabs on my actions.

I was starting to wish I'd gone into work, even without being required to do so. Or read one of those books in my office, regardless of how I thought they were boring. What good was having a day off if I was continually second-guessing my behavior?

Shaking my head as I set my purchases on the passenger seat, I reluctantly started my car and turned on the radio to a nice classical station in an attempt to distract myself. I'd gotten far too serious about everything. My brother's somewhat thoughtless, impulsive behavior was starting to sound very nice in comparison to my sheltered, narrow world.

Quickly pushing those feelings out of my head, I pulled away from the electronics store and joined the sparse late morning traffic on the road. My father and my responsibilities were much more important to me than such frivolous things, and I wasn't particularly discontent with my life, anyway.

My father had been abandoned by one son. I wasn't about to become the second.

Still, it was very nerve-wracking as I finally made it home after driving around quite a bit in an attempt to calm myself down. I'd finally decided to simply walk in with my bags in hand. After all, they weren't see-through and it wouldn't be strange of me to have bought something from that store; I often upgraded my computer equipment.

I made sure the top of the bag was closed, then I stepped up to the enormous front door, through which an obscenely obese elephant could probably fit. After allowing myself only a moment to slip into my usual persona of the obedient, reserved young master of the household, I entered the house.

As always, the prim maids seemed to know exactly when I was about to come in. One of them shut the door behind me and I strode past their neat rows as they greeted me with the usual welcomes, sounding like robots programmed with one or two lines of speech. Then again, that also applied to me. I said, "Yes, father," so often, it had nearly become a reflex.

"Zian-xiānshēng."

I reluctantly paused in my ascent of the steep staircase and slowly turned around at the quiet call from one of the younger butlers. His down-turned eyes made me want to slap him upside the head so he'd finally look at me. The whole house staff probably knew all of the rooms' floors' appearances better than they knew mine.

"What is it?" I asked, frowning at him for the interruption.

"Lunch shall be ready shortly," he informed, dipping his head even further.

I nodded vaguely at his words, not that he could see my response while he stared at his feet, and glanced up the stairs where my refuge awaited. "I am feeling rather tired. I will eat in my room."

"Yes, of course. I will have a tray brought to you, Zian-xiānshēng."

He turned away as I resumed my climb and hurried to my room, not feeling tired at all. I'd used that excuse countless times in the past, usually to avoid having to eat alone in the huge dining hall. But no one ever questioned my hesitancy to dine in there. No one, aside from my father, ever questioned me on anything. The house staff was composed of mindless drones, wordlessly carrying out whatever order I gave. It was endlessly irritating. Efficient, yes. But irritating. Mostly because every time I looked at them, I was reminded of myself and how I unquestioningly did everything my father asked of me.

No free-will whatsoever.

But perhaps it was simply easier to live that way.

I sighed with relief as I shut my office door behind myself. It seemed that I'd managed to smuggle my waste of time into the house without anyone knowing. Though it'd had an awkward start, I was very much enjoying my day off. I felt as though I'd gone back to my childhood years when my brother and I did all sorts of sneaky things together simply to see whether or not we would get caught. Though those days had come to an abrupt end when we did indeed get caught. Punishment had of course followed.

With the _Second Life_ box hidden away in one of my desk drawers, I seated myself on my wheeled office chair and began transferring the files from my old hard drive to the new one. A very boring task. One I was very happy to interrupt as lunch was brought in to me shortly after I'd begun working.

I silently watched as the maid carefully set the tray of food down on the small table near the sunny window beside my desk, then proceeded to bow herself out of the room. "Do not call me for dinner," I ordered before she could leave. She nearly looked at me. Nearly. Her efforts made me inwardly roll my eyes.

"Yes, Zian-xiānshēng."

I stood once she was gone and locked the door. Lunch forgotten, I retrieved the _Second Life_ box and went into my bedroom. I sat myself on the soft cushions of my small sofa and carefully pulled the tape off the box. It made a very loud tearing noise and I froze, wondering if anyone else had heard it.

Several minutes passed and no one knocked on my office door, so I nervously went back to what I'd been doing. The top opened by itself once it wasn't held together any longer and I reached inside. My hand closed around a thin book and I pulled it out, briefly looking over the cover.

"User manual," I mumbled to myself and set it to one side. Putting my hand in the box again, I pulled out a small, cardboard package and a transparent plastic bag full of wires. I glanced into the box, then set it on the floor as I saw it was empty.

The second box opened to reveal a strange-looking contraption. A quick look through the manual told me that it was the game helmet. I critically ran my eyes over it. It didn't look very comfortable, especially since I was supposed to sleep in it. I would have to be very careful about the position I slept in so I didn't get impressions of the plastic all over my face.

After I skimmed the rest of the manual to get a basic grasp on how to work everything, I stood up, headset in hand. It was barely midday, but I was itching to try it out regardless of the time.

I allowed myself a few minutes to change into my pajamas and close my thick curtains to darken the room, then I settled down atop my bed. I held the headset in my hands for a moment and simply stared at it. I'd never thought about it before, but the idea of becoming someone else, in a game or not, was rather intriguing. But I was still struggling with how my father would react if he found out what I was doing. Regardless of my age, he was still very controlling and expected the very best from me. This would only be seen by him as an unwanted distraction.

Deciding I would only play the game every once and a while to keep it out of the way of my real responsibilities, I plugged the headset into a power outlet by my bed, inserted the game cartridge, then slipped the device over my head. With one more moment of hesitation, I laid down and closed my eyes.

* * *

_Xiānshēng is like "mister." I know they would probably be using his surname with the honorific, rather than his given name, but for the sake of keeping mysterious things mysterious… :P_


	2. Messy Beginnings

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note –** I purposefully skipped over walking through the character creation process. You all know how it goes, anyway…_

* * *

I deeply breathed in the warm, fresh air of Second Life, and curiously looked around at my surroundings. This game was so detailed, it made me feel somewhat overwhelmed as I took a few steps forward from where I'd appeared in the courtyard of a small village. The cobblestone street was so solid under my light boots, the sun so bright above me, the blue clothing I wore so soft against my skin. Virtual reality was so unexpectedly, well, real. Quite different from the hand-held game I'd played so many years ago. And quite different from the _real_ real world. It was slightly inconceivable that I was actually sleeping in my bedroom, rather than walking down a road.

The character design process I'd just finished with had gone very slowly, because I'd been feeling very indecisive for the first time in a long while. Usually if I had to make a decision about something, I based my choice on whatever it was my father would have chosen. But, since this all had nothing whatsoever to do with him, I'd made everything unnecessarily difficult for myself in my exhilaration.

I'd eventually chosen to be an angel from the celestial race, simply because I liked the idea of having wings. Though, once I'd entered the game world itself, I wasn't quite sure where those magnificent wings had gone. They weren't on my back any longer, aside from a few lines of tiny black feathers running across my skin, which all together were hardly enough for a small bird to use to fly, much less an entire man. But my light-weight newbie clothing did have intentional holes positioned at my shoulders where my wings were supposed to be protruding.

Perhaps I should have asked more questions to the man who helped me make my character. Then again, he might not have answered me even if I'd asked. I'd spent the majority of the time with him in that large checkered room making my character's sleek black hair grow and shrink, because it was oddly entertaining to watch.

He'd eventually yelled at me to hurry up and make my choice, though his reaction had only made me want to continue, since his irritation was even more amusing than the hair. It had been a long time since anyone had spoken to me as if I was a normal human, rather than the son of a prominent figure in society. Not even my friends talked to me like that.

After I'd stopped tormenting the poor man, I'd quickly corrected my character's hair length, making it fall nearly to his waist in straight, shiny black torrents, shimmering with a slight blue tint in the light. Quite some time later, I'd decided on deep gold eyes and a fair, creamy complexion that went nicely with his pale blue clothing. I'd then pronounced him finished, no special additives or beautifying, just myself. Though the man had made many unwanted suggestions along the way on how to make myself "extra super handsome for the ladies".

I'd politely refused all of his offers, since I couldn't care less if I was popular. Not that I wanted to be ugly if only to drive people away; I did have a small, vain care about my appearance to a certain extent, but I had no interest in associating with people who were only interested in my looks, much like those only getting close to me for my elevated social status. Such shallow people weren't worth my time.

The man assisting me had heaved a long, relieved sigh once I was done and asked me in a very annoyed tone what I wanted to name myself.

In contrast to the rest of the needlessly lengthy creation process, it hadn't been difficult at all to think up a name. As I'd run my eyes over the bright, pure-looking angel, my mind had wandered back to when my older brother had talked to me of the things he'd read about in his large collection of books. For some time, he'd been fixated on Greek mythology.

"Aeolus," I'd chosen after a brief moment's thought. The Greek king in control of the winds. It had sounded very fitting for the angel that had been standing in front of me, who looked as though he would be able to manipulate the air as easily as he could fly through it. But I hadn't had long to marvel over his impressiveness, as the man helping me, probably in a want to get rid of me, had abruptly shoved me off to the Central Continent without asking me beforehand where I wanted to go. Not that I'd had an opinion on the matter, anyway.

There I found myself, wandering down a tidy, shop-lined street, wondering what to do first. I felt slightly lost, having no definite plans to follow. Every single one of my days up until then had been so carefully organized and planned, the release from my boundaries was both refreshing and somewhat frightening.

I paused in my slow steps and frowned at myself. I was once again taking everything too seriously. This was a game, I didn't need a schedule or any orders to act on. Fixating that thought in my head, I proceeded down the street once more, admiring my surroundings. Small shops and houses dotting the roadside, other people chatting to one another as they went about their business, little patches of lovely-smelling flowers and leafy trees here and there, tiny insects buzzing about. Oddly normal things, yet they all looked so interesting.

I took my time appreciating the quaint scene unfolding before me, and then continued on my way. The lively village was very tiny, and it didn't take me long to reach the edge. My eyes widened with unexpected surprise as I stepped out onto the rough dirt path and looked about the grassy stretches of land that went in every direction. The knowledge that I was inside a game was steadily fading the more I looked around. This was an entire world, separate from the one I'd been living in.

"Second _Life_, hm?" I murmured under my breath, smiling in suppressed excitement as I took in the sight.

After walking down the path for a few minutes, my attention was captured by a round, colorful thing bouncing about on a small knoll beside a nearby a lake, glittering in the sunlight. I slowly walked closer, curious as to what the blob was, since I'd never seen anything like it before.

I stopped a few feet away from it and watched as it hopped around. There were several others—all the same acidic green hue—surrounding the hill as well, none of them seeming to notice my presence, and I stared at them in bemusement. They reminded me slightly of children's gummy snacks, only much larger and alive. I doubted they tasted anything like the snacks, though. Not that I was going to test one out to see.

Carefully picking up a long tree branch that had been laying by my feet, I crouched in the grass and waited until the nearest creature was facing me. When it turned, I quickly stabbed the stick into its wide, tooth-filled mouth and lifted it into the air, inspecting it as closely as I dared.

"Who in the world designed the monsters to look like this?" I asked myself in disbelief as the blob wriggled around on the stick. I hoped the other monsters were more imposing than that bulbous… thing.

"These look anything but threatening."

I wasn't very surprised as a thick, green ooze started rolling down my stick from where I'd poked the blob. Before the goo could touch my hand, I dropped the stick on the ground, feeling somewhat disgusted.

The whatever-it-was I'd impaled made a gurgling growl and began hopping toward me with what I supposed was an angry expression on its little face, flecks of goo flying out of its wounded mouth. I kicked it away when it got too close and watched it fall down the side of the hill. It landed upside down and began rolling to and fro, unable to right itself.

Unwilling to get my nice, white boots dirty by stomping the pathetic creature to death, I searched around myself for a moment. My eyes landed on a large rock poking out of the grass, and I hurried to it. With some difficulty, I lifted it in the air, and cautiously stepped over to the indignantly snarling blob. I dropped the rock on top of it, and it popped with a loud, wet noise. I watched in horror as pieces of the monster's gooey innards landed on my precious boots. I'd been so careful to keep myself clean, and that stupid thing had ruined all my efforts in one tiny moment.

I jumped violently and was startled out of my anger as a voice suddenly rang through the air, **"AEOLUS HAS DEFEATED FLESH-EATING SLIME! EXPERIENCE +25! ITEM GAINED: NEWBIE POUCH! NEW SKILLS LEARNED: SWIFT STAB, EVASIVE KICK, BOULDER CRUSH!"**

That game voice was definitely going to get on my nerves in a very short amount of time, I thought, clutching at my chest as I breathed shakily after the moment of fright at not having any idea who was screaming at me so obnoxiously.

**"ADVICE FOR NEWBIES: TO VIEW YOUR STATISTICS, SAY THE WORD 'SYSTEM'!"**

Not particularly caring what my stats were at the moment, I gingerly plucked the small pouch out of the slime's remains and grimaced as my fingers slipped through green goop, which had the consistency and stickiness of tree sap.

"Great. Now it's on my hands, too," I mumbled to myself as I opened the pouch and looked inside, hoping there was a handkerchief or something else I could clean myself off with. Disappointment turned the corners of my mouth further downward as I pulled out a small glass bottle of some blue liquid I couldn't identify, a few silver coins, a white cloak I doubted was meant for hand-wiping, and a short dagger resting in a prettily decorated little sheath. I returned everything to the pouch and securely tied it onto my belt, sighing as I rubbed the goop off my hands, onto a clean patch of grass.

My hands didn't stay clean for long as I picked up the boulder once more. It parted with the late slime in a mess of goo and squelchy noises. I then proceeded to vent all my anger toward the imbecile of a monster for having soiled my boots as I hurried around the hill, squashing the rest of them one-by-one.

Standing a few feet away from the slimes as I threw the rock at them proved to be a much cleaner method of killing them than my new dagger would have been. It was extremely tiring, repeatedly tossing the heavy boulder about, but I much preferred that to getting slime all over myself, so I persisted. And I had short breaks to pick up loot then and again when I'd killed all of the blobs and had to wait for new ones to appear, so it wasn't overwhelmingly exhausting.

A few hours later, I dropped the rock a final time, and the system informed me that I had reached level ten at last. Smiling with relief through my heavy breathing and aching muscles, I remembered reading in the game manual that level ten was what I needed to get a job. No more squishing slimes for experience. What a wonderful thought it was. And a strange one, at that.

I hurried away from the messy hill, hoping to never see another flesh-eating slime again, and stopped just outside the western entrance to the celestial newbie village. "System," I said at last, and flinched with surprise as a large screen abruptly appeared in mid-air before my eyes. I gave a brief glance to my own picture, and then ran my eyes down the list of statistics.

Having no idea what the little numbers and words meant, I closed the system window and entered the village again, rearranging my hair neatly over one shoulder, feeling relieved that none of the goo had gotten in it. If it had, I doubted even the best shampoos would have been able to get it clean again.

Entering the center of the village where the market was located, I stood to one side and silently ran my eyes over the people milling about. There were several shops located on the edges of the open area, all with hanging signs swaying about in the breeze attached to their fronts. Each had a small wooden relief on it, depicting an object of focus that was sold in the shop.

I halted my eyes on the shop with a sword sign. There was a rather burly, rugged man out front, speaking energetically to the people standing beside him. He must have been the person one went to for a warrior class change. I definitely didn't want to be a warrior, since they fought in close combat with their opponents. I'd already had quite enough of being near monsters and getting their insides all over myself.

Looking to the next building, I immediately rejected going there. It was a magic shop, judging by the staff on the sign and the bizarre-looking man in bright blue robes standing outside chatting with the nearby players. Magic wasn't very appealing to me either, though more so than being a warrior. Carrying a staff around with me wherever I went seemed like it would be irritating and inconvenient. Plus, being a magician didn't sound very stealthy. All of the bright flashing spells—not to mention the billowing robes I assumed came with the job—would be very eye-catching. I didn't want to be eye-catching, especially not when aggressive monsters were involved.

An archery shop was the next in line. My eyes widened slightly in interest. My brother and I practiced archery some during our high school years, along with a great deal of useless other things I'd probably never do again, like play the piano.

I had experience with archery, enjoyed it, was skilled at it, and it was a long-distance kind of combat. It seemed like an all-around good choice.

Ignoring the other shops I hadn't taken into consideration, I hurried across the square, weaving between the people walking about, and stopped in front of the archery master. He was tall, thin, and had sharp, green eyes that looked as though they could see for miles. A rather menacing-looking person, overall.

He silently stared at me with a cold look. I stared back, trying very hard not to blink, and waited for him to speak. He tightened his grip on the very large crossbow he held in his hands, but I kept my eyes fixated on his. A smile suddenly broke out onto his face, and I felt slightly confused at the complete turn-around. He slapped a calloused hand on my shoulder a few times and chuckled deeply. "Well, it looks like you have the focus it takes to be an archer."

My face felt a bit warm as a small smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. I hadn't been expecting a compliment from the fierce-looking NPC. If anything, I thought perhaps he was going to shoot me full of crossbow bolts for staring at him. I wondered if all the other job masters tested their customers in some way, or if he'd just been bored.

"You seem kinda weak, though," he continued after a moment, once again slapping my shoulder and watching my knees buckle slightly under the impact.

I was annoyed that he wouldn't stop hitting me, but even more so that it was obvious to anyone who saw me that I was a newbie. Not to mention the fact that we were in a newbie village. Of course I was weak. What was he expecting?

"I only just started playing," I slowly explained.

He nodded and then took his hand back, much to my relief. "But what about your skill points? You woulda gained some from fighting up to level ten."

"Oh," I breathed in realization, refraining from rubbing my sore and most likely bruised shoulder. "Yes, I… did not know what to use those on…"

"For an archer," he started, thumping himself on the chest. I was glad it wasn't me. "You'll wanna keep up your agility and physique. Dexterity's very important for an archer, 'cause you have to keep out of your opponents' reach, n' stuff," he told me with a nod.

I wordlessly nodded back in agreement, having no idea what he was saying and not knowing how to respond. It sounded like he knew what he was talking about, whatever was going on.

He suddenly grabbed my upper arms and turned me around. "Hm, black wings?" He took hold of my hands and stretched them out to each side, tugging on them gently. "Impressive span, by the looks of it. At least fourteen, maybe even fifteen feet from tip-to-tip."

"Oh?" I said quietly with a bewildered look over my shoulder as he began prodding my lightly feathered skin through the holes in the back of my shirt. His fingers felt ticklish against my sensitive shoulder blades, but I forced myself to stay still.

With a noise of confirmation—whatever it was he was confirming, I didn't know—he turned me back around. I didn't bother to get comfortable in my position, just in case he was going to do something again.

He took a deep breath and began, "Strength is important, so your wings can support your weight and you don't strain any muscles. If you'd chosen guardial race, you woulda needed a lot more. However, since you're an angel and of a light build, it's fine to use a bit fewer points on strength. So, go with about a third or fourth of your skill points for strength every level-up until you don't get tired anymore when flying, and after that it'll just be your own choice whether you wanna make it higher, or not. Seems like you shouldn't have any problems there.

"As for agility, you'll need a lot, lot, lot for aerial combat. Some mobs and players out there use long-range as well as close-range attacks, so at times you'll have to be both on offensive and defensive while fighting, and that can get kinda confusing while you're flying around. Plus it's crucial to up your stamina so you can fly for long stretches of time, whether for battle or for travel. Use the majority of your points for agility and stamina every level up—a half, or even two-thirds until you get to the point where you aren't having any trouble with evasive techniques.

"Use the rest on whatever you want, it's all very preference-based. A few points here and there on your mana wouldn't be too bad, since special attacks sometimes use magic, even if you're not a magician. All those little skills might come in handy at some point, so ignore them, or don't. Whatever you wanna do," he finally ended, sounding a bit winded after such a long lecture on the ways of using skill points.

"I see…" I whispered faintly, once again feeling overwhelmed by new information. The game's complexity was starting to come into perspective. Those things about flying hadn't even crossed my mind. After all, birds and whatnot seemed to have no problems whatsoever flying, why would I? I could understand why strength was of more importance to the guardials of the celestial race, though. I had immediately turned down that choice as it had looked like a hideous, giant gorilla with wings. Not at all nice to look at.

Before the man could start talking again, I opened the system window again and had him walk me through the use of my accumulated skill points, since he seemed like the most qualified person to ask. After a few moments, I was out of points, and leveled up.

"Great!" he exclaimed loudly when I was finished, and raised a hand. I stepped to one side before he had a chance to pummel my poor arm again, and he shot me an amused look. "Learn quickly, don'cha?"

I sent him a quick, polite smile in return, though I wasn't feeling at all amused by his rough treatment. He may have only been playing with me, but it still hurt. My pale blue newbie armor, which was far too thin and flimsy to actually have many defensive capabilities, was doing a very disappointing job keeping me protected.

"May I change my class now?" I inquired somewhat eagerly. I hadn't used a bow in years, and holding one again sounded very appealing. Especially since my weapon of choice had just been a large, goo-covered rock, a bow sounded much nicer.

"Nope," he immediately denied, shaking his head in refusal and dashing my hopes to pieces.

My eyes widened slightly, and I stared at him for a moment, confused. "And why not?"

"Because you hafta bring me ten eagle feathers," he informed, waving a finger at me. "Every job master requires their customers to complete a little quest for a class change!"

"Where are the eagles?" I asked, feeling annoyed that I had to do something else. I wanted to go explore elsewhere, not stand about in this newbie village, since the game world was so huge and there were so many other places to see.

"In the little forest, just outside the north gate," he answered, pointing a hand to my right.

"Thank you," I said with a quick nod, and hurried away. I quickly headed for the forest to which he'd directed me, attempting to beat down my rising excitement. I hadn't seen the eagles yet, but they sounded more challenging than those ridiculous blobs I'd been fighting.

Running to the little wooded area full of tall, pale birch trees, I craned my neck back, searching the thick branches, but then glanced toward the village gate. In the onslaught of gamer jargon and arm slapping, I'd forgotten to ask the archery master how to use my wings. I didn't suppose it would be hard to figure it out on my own how to make them sprout, but it was still nice to have someone else to ask such questions. Someone who actually knew what they were doing. There were a few other newbies nearby in the trees and on the ground, probably other soon-to-be-archers, but I didn't want to ask them.

Sighing, I turned back to the tree I was standing beside, grabbed a low-hanging branch, and proceeded to climb. As I reached the nest I'd been aiming for, I peered over the edge, and was very startled to find myself nose-to-beak with a thoroughly annoyed-looking eagle.

Trying not to feel as scared as I wanted to, I cautiously reached out a hand toward it. It let out a loud squawk as its head darted forward almost faster than I could see, and pecked my palm. Glaring at the bird, I punched the side of its head, and then rubbed at the small cut its beak had made in my skin. It hurt, but it didn't hurt anywhere near as much as something like that would have in real life, I realized with a smirk. This was going to be easy.

Reaching toward the eagle again, my fear gone, I swiftly grabbed it by the throat, and squeezed as hard as I could. Its wings and legs waved wildly, beating me upside the head and giving me several cuts on my arms, but I persisted, using my other arm to shield my face from its frantic attacks. I gave one last squeeze, twisted, and felt its neck snap. The eagle went limp in my hand, and I peeked at it over my elbow.

**"AEOLUS HAS DEFEATED EAGLE! EXPERIENCE +50! QUEST ITEM RECEIVED: EAGLE FEATHER! NEW SKILL LEARNED: STRANGULATION!"**

I felt slightly sorry for killing the poor bird in such a manner, but smiled as I tucked the newly-acquired feather and the other loot safely into my pouch, and eagerly stared at the empty nest, waiting for a new one to spawn. I could have simply moved to another nest, but I didn't feel like climbing down the tree again, and allowed my scratches time to heal before the next fight came around.

It only took me half an hour longer to strangle nine more eagles to death, and I was back in front of the archery master, covered in gashes and feeling very proud of myself. I thrust the feathers at him before he had a chance to start another staring match. "May I change my class _now_?"

"Sure," he said, smiling happily at me as he took the feathers. He then dismissively waved his hand at me as the game yelled my job had been changed. "There you go, you're now an archer. Your new weapon is in your pouch!"

I nodded at him in thanks, and quickly stepped away from the shop to allow the next person in line to speak to him. Leaving the village again by the northern gate, so I didn't have to go past the annoying hill of slimes, I walked for several minutes until I was out of sight of the eagle-filled birches.

I finally stopped underneath a tall pine tree beside the dirt path and flipped open the pouch on my belt. Inserting my hand, I felt around for a moment. My fingers brushed against the loot I'd crammed inside while killing slimes and eagles, and that cloak, and that bottle, and then they bumped against something thin and smooth I couldn't recall storing. Wrapping my hand around it, I tugged on the end, and began removing it from my pouch, slowly so it didn't catch on anything else inside.

The bow just kept coming, and coming. It nearly looked as though it was going to be too big to manage. The end finally left the pouch and I continued to stare downward, wondering just how the giant bow had managed to fit in there. From the outside, the little leather bag looked to be barely able to hold a handful of loot, much less a longbow that was nearly as tall as I.

Closing the pouch, I decided I wasn't going to dwell on such mysterious things as I assumed there were going to be many more equally not-so-understandable occurrences. I weighed the bow in my hand. It was nearly six feet long, made of a gray-colored wood, and was very light as if the limb was hollow. Ideal for carrying while flying, as it would probably not add any weight.

I drew the string experimentally, and found the bow to be extremely flexible and sturdy. I carefully bent it back as far as I could. The bow contorted obediently, without cracking or seeming to be strained. I let it snap back to its original shape and smiled.

This was definitely going to be fun.

* * *

_Initially, Aeolus was a warrior with a guan dao as a weapon, but I changed him to an archer. This way, he can fight from a tree, or the air, or wherever else. It's more fitting of his quiet, stand-offish nature, than to be in the middle of the fray, slicing and dicing his opponents._

_And his race at first was an aasimar (from the celestial race, but actually a human-based creature), but I figured that would make him look too much like Wicked with the silver hair and gold eyes aasimars have, so I switched him to the angel race, keeping the gold eyes and changing his hair to black. _

___Plus the one time I've seen Second Life characters with wings was during the first chapter of the manhua when Lan was choosing her race. I can't recall seeing anyone in-game with them. Doll is also an angel yet she doesn't have wings for some reason or another (I've always wondered why…) but I wanted Aeolus to have them—because they're symbolic, and because I think wings are cool. xD And because I feel like they'll get in the way sometimes, they're retractable. Might as well go all-out, right?_


	3. Meeting Dib

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

_"Zian-xiānshēng?"_

_I glanced upward from the papers on my desk, halting my fountain pen mid-signature. The bright face of my newest employee grinned expectantly at me from the open gap of my office door. "Yes, what is it?"_

_"Ah, I have today's report for you!" he explained quickly, waving a small stack of papers in the air. _

_More papers to read. Just what I needed. "Thank you," I said, patting my right hand on top of my desk, "put it here, please."_

_"Yes, Zian-xiānshēng." He hurried forward to obey._

_I returned my attention to writing the rest of my signature, and shifted the paper out of the way. I looked up in confusion. He was still there, staring at me with a small smile. "What is it?" I repeated quietly._

_His mouth dropped open a bit, and he looked slightly embarrassed for some reason. "O-oh!" he chuckled, clasping his hands together. "I just… You're looking so lively these days, it's nice!"_

Hours later, and I was still hearing the words he audaciously blurted out at me. In some ways that sentence was even more surprising than my father randomly telling me to take a day off. And not surprising in a good way. It was the kind of surprised feeling one gets when they belatedly discover the public toilet is backed up, and they flush it without knowing, and everything overflows all over the floor for everyone to see. Yes, I was surprised.

Lively? Me? Never before had someone used that word to describe me. I didn't even know the man very well, he'd only been hired around two months ago. How could he tell the difference? Certainly, I hadn't been feeling very stressed since my secretly-very-eventful day off, but going so far as to say lively? Had I been? Just how lively could I be, sitting in an office reading and signing papers all day long?

I hadn't known my behavior had noticeably changed since before. Change was not what I wanted, in fact it was something I didn't want at all. If something changed, my father would definitely see it. His damn superior perception, which I'd never had.

I doubted I'd be able to pass my mood off as enthusiasm for my work. It wouldn't take him long to discover the source of my relief, and that was a very terrifying thought. I didn't want it taken away from me. I'd grown rather attached to my Second Life character over the past month since I'd bought the game. He was another me, for goodness sake. How could I not feel fond of him?

Logging into Second Life each night was like taking a deep breath of fresh air after being under dark, murky water for an entire day. The game world had shown me just how small my own life was in comparison. I supposed to the outside world, my real life seemed wonderful. I used to think the same. After all, my father was rich, and he had given me an important spot in his company right after I'd graduated from an exclusive business school.

I had the world at my feet.

And my arms held fast in shackles.

My extraordinary life. My life as his loyal tool, doing whatever he asked, whenever he asked. Led in circles, around and around. Like clockwork; always moving, but never going anywhere. Simply frozen in place.

"Lively?" I murmured to myself, almost scoffing at the word, and drew my eyebrows together contemplatively. "I will have to be more careful from now on."

For the moment, I set those thoughts aside, and tapped the heel of my boot against the rock I was standing on. My prey, the giant, slimy orange slug not far below me, turned its large, tentacle-like eyes upward. They lazily waved around for a moment, searching for the source of the vibrations in the ground.

I carefully drew my bow back, aiming for each stalk poking out of the fat creature's head. With two soft whistling sounds, a pair of arrows were loosed and they flew side-by-side through the air and hit their respective targets.

The slug gave a shriek of pain and lifted its front end into the air, swaying this way and that, looking for me. I calmly stayed in the shadow of the rocky outcropping I was standing underneath, and shot several more arrows at its exposed belly, lowering its health to a fatal level.

As it furiously turned in my direction, acidic spittle flying out of its mouth and melting the ground nearby, I took a deep breath and readied myself. "Piercing Tempest," I named quietly, releasing my arrow. The nearly-overwhelming force of the wind created by my finishing move made my long, black hair blow backward.

When I'd first learned that attack, I'd fallen out of the tree I'd been in. It was a very ungraceful and humiliating moment for an angel such as myself, and I'd been very glad that no one else had been around to watch. Fortunately for me, there'd been a large bush underneath my perch. Unfortunately for me, there were also several wolves I'd been shooting, and I hadn't quite gotten the hang of using my wings. Not that I would have been able to use them in that particular situation, laying on my back, tangled in branches, and getting gnawed on by mobs. Since then, I'd been much more cautious when using that particular attack.

I quickly blinked my slightly dried-out eyes as I watched the brightly glowing arrow shoot swiftly through the air, and bury itself deep inside the creature's mouth. With a gush of dark blood and I-didn't-want-to-know-what-else, the slug collapsed, part of its head blasted off by the impact of the arrow. Though it was rather disgusting to watch, I was very satisfied with my training on the slugs. Not only were they slow to move about, and relied on light to find their targets, their squashy bodies were ideal for peppering with arrows. Plus my windy attacks dried them out, impairing their movement capabilities.

**"AEOLUS HAS DEFEATED POISONOUS SLUG! EXPERIENCE +200!"**

"Oh, shut up," I grumbled as I rolled my eyes and quickly unstrung my longbow, tucking it safely away in the quiver set between my shoulder blades. Stepping off the cliff, I unfurled my wings and easily lowered myself down to the filthy, slug-corpse-covered ground. Covering my mouth and nose with one hand so I didn't have to breathe in the putrid fumes roiling up from the dead slug, I quickly picked up the loot it had dropped and the few arrows that were still usable.

Walking several steps away to a patch of cleaner air, I looked over my new items—twenty copper and five silver coins, a small ring, a thick belt, and a bottle of poison. I carefully tucked everything into my pouch and frowned. I was out of inventory space. I'd been able to prolong my stay somewhat, wearing some of the loot and using other things, but I'd exhausted my options.

"How bothersome." With a sigh, I quickly lifted myself into the air again, and flew out of the damp chasm I'd been training in for the past week. Adjusting my course to the nearby Sun City, I watched the green land scroll by in a blur underneath me. Killing monsters was oddly satisfying, and very nice for stress relief, but I found flying to be much more rejuvenating than watching slug heads explode.

Raising my gaze, I watched a large flock of birds soar past over a wooded area near the city gate, and disappear into the treetops. Letting out another sigh, I smiled happily as the strong wind flew past in gusts, and I stilled my wings, letting myself lazily glide along on a warm draft. I loved it up there in the sky. I felt so free. So limitless. A feeling I'd never had before.

Half an hour later, I was leaving the city again, having sold all the loot I didn't want. Other than replenishing my potions and arrows, I'd also bought myself a larger pouch so I could train for longer spans of time.

Feeling slightly bored of killing slugs at the dreary cliffs, I decided to go to the woods for a change of scenery. Following the path that flock of birds had taken earlier, I searched for an opening I could go through in the leafy ceiling of the dense forest.

A faint scream from below made me halt. I listened closely, turning myself around. I couldn't tell which direction the sound had come from. Another scream came from my right, closer than the last.

I flew toward the area, and dropped myself down into a tree. Retracting my wings so they wouldn't get tangled, I deftly slid through the thick branches until I was able to clearly see the shadowy ground. My eyes widened slightly as I watched a tiny, young boy run through the underbrush, grass, and moss at the base of my tree. He was followed closely by four very angry-looking bears.

Not pausing to think, I ran out on the branch, pulling my bow out of the quiver and stringing it. I leapt off the end of the bough and opened my wings again, ignoring the pain as they snagged on several branches during my descent. Nocking an arrow, I dived toward the bear closest to the fleeing boy, and let it fly. The head of the arrow buried itself in the bear's left foreleg, and it stumbled. A second bear tripped over the fallen, but the other two simply sidestepped the collision. The boy glanced behind himself fearfully as he heard the crash, and his progress slowed.

"Keep running!" I yelled at him, and his mouth dropped open slightly as he looked up at me in bewilderment. He hurriedly turned back around and resumed his escape. I beat my wings furiously to get ahead of them, feeling thankful that the enormous trees actually weren't very close together, though their height and width had given the wood a very pressing look when viewing it from the top.

Giving one last burst of speed, I darted through the tree trunks and twisted around in mid-air as I folded my wings close to myself. I shot the third bear through the eye while I fell to the ground, and landed heavily in the grass, cramming my bow into my quiver while I had the chance. When the boy made to run past me, I grabbed him around the middle and launched us both into the air before the last bear could catch up. Holding him close, I burst through the leafy ceiling of the forest, and flew over the trees for nearly ten minutes to get us to safety, and finally set us down on a thick branch as gently as I could in my exhaustion.

The boy shakily clutched at my arm and glanced about the ground below us as if convinced the bears had followed us all the way there. I patted his thin back and leaned against the tree trunk. "They won't catch up," I wheezed at him, trying to sound convincing through my gasps for air. The muscles in my back and shoulders were burning from carrying the weight of another person, even if he was very small.

After a moment of silence, he unexpectedly glared at me. "What did you do that for?"

I stared at him in shock. Whatever I'd been expecting as a response, it hadn't been one of anger. If anything, the boy should have been thanking me for rescuing him from getting torn to smithereens at the claws of a merciless bear. "I beg your pardon?"

"I had the situation under control!" he corrected sharply, and frowned as he stood up and began to brush leaves and twigs out of his short and curly blond hair.

"Well, that is not what it looked like to me," I said quietly, feeling completely bewildered as he planted his booted feet as far apart as he could on the wide branch and crossed his arms.

"Well!" he echoed, raising a pale eyebrow at me and smirking. "Maybe you shoulda watched for a bit longer! I coulda taken all four of 'em down, no problem at all!"

I refrained from smirking back as I ran my eyes over his more-than-lacking stature. He looked like he was barely three feet tall, if even that. I was sitting down and he still had to look up to meet my eyes. And the fact that he looked to be only a few years old wasn't helping him appear very impressive.

"I apologize for my mistake. Will you allow me to take you back so you can finish your fight?"

Terror flashed through his bright blue eyes and he glanced downward again. "N-no!" he refused firmly, sticking his chin out further. "They probably ran off from fear, and stuff…" he ended in a mumble, his stern look faltering somewhat.

"Ah, yes, I am sure they did. You are so terribly frightening, after all," I remarked sarcastically as I stood and shook out my sore wings in preparation to take off and purposefully leave him there on top of that tree. "Goodbye."

"WAIT!" he screamed and tightly wrapped his little arms around my own. I looked down in bemusement at his worried expression. I was very much starting to wish I'd gone back to the slugs, rather than coming here.

"Yes?"

"Where are you going?" he asked hurriedly.

"Somewhere else," I told him evasively, not actually knowing where I was headed.

He opened and closed his mouth a few times, though no words came out. Taking a deep breath, he steadily tightened his grip around my arm. I winced slightly at how strong he was. It felt as though all of the blood to my forearm was getting cut off.

"M-may…" he finally said, and then gulped.

"Hm?" I raised an eyebrow at him, trying to keep myself from forcefully yanking my arm out of his clutches, and instead settled for light tugs, all of which he ignored.

"May I come with you?" he blurted out.

Both my eyebrows shot upward at the unexpected request, since he'd been acting so superior a moment ago, and his very unbelievable impressiveness was replaced with a pleading and rather tearful stare. Why in the world would he want to come with me?

I forced my mouth to close, and looked away from his pathetic face, toward the countless leafy tree branches surrounding us, giving the somewhat stuffy air a green hue. I'd never thought of playing the game with someone else. After all, I was doing just fine on my own, and preferred to keep to myself. But…

Glancing down at him out of the corner of my eye, I attempted to come to a decision. He was starting to look panicky at my lack of response. His abrupt changes in mood were making me extremely confused.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, nodding once and hoping I wasn't going to regret this. "Yes, you may come with me."

His face brightened immediately as I spoke, and he smiled for the first time. The excited, childish expression nearly made me smile as well, but I kept my face blank. He looked so cute, I involuntarily relaxed my arm in his warm grip.

"Really?" he asked happily, leaning backward, but not letting me go just yet. "You won't mind if I join you?"

I shook my head at him and drew my wings against my back so they would stop twitching. My cheeks started burning at his extreme enthusiasm over my agreement. "I suppose not."

He finally unwrapped his arms from around mine and took my hand, shaking it up and down energetically. "Great! I've been wanting a teammate!" He smiled at me again. I nodded awkwardly, not really knowing what to say in response. "What's your name?" he curiously inquired after a moment.

"…Aeolus," I answered hesitantly. It was getting harder to look at his shiny expression. I could nearly feel the hyper energy spilling out of him as he squeezed my hand. No one had ever treated me in such a friendly manner, and I was positive no one would have ever yelled at me like that. My mind flickered to my friends in real life. They were all so quiet and reserved toward me, I'd always thought it was normal for friends to behave so distantly. But this boy was acting so familiar and close, even though we'd only just met. It was bizarre, but made me feel a bit happy.

"O-oh," he breathed, looking impressed at my name. "That sounds so…so, um." He paused and gave me a complicated expression. "Confusing. Say it again?"

"Aeolus," I repeated and frowned at him in sudden annoyance. It was only three syllables long, how difficult could it be to remember?

With a nod, he said it to himself several times under his breath as if trying to figure out how to pronounce it. Afterward, he looked back up at me and grinned. "I'm Dib, nice to meet you!" Without warning, he suddenly jumped into the air and hit my back with what felt like all of his strength.

I nearly fell off the branch, but managed to catch myself at the last moment by grabbing the rough tree trunk. It was a mystery as to why people kept feeling it necessary to slap me all of the time.

Heart pounding, I straightened and let go of the tree. "Likewise…"

* * *

_Thus enters my second OC, Dib. The one who has the capabilities to balance out (and overwhelm) Aeolus' awkward silence with large amounts of unneeded chatter. xD_

_Race: Halfling_  
_Class: Warrior, focuses on strength and agility_  
_Weapon: Dual short swords (narrow-bladed scimitars)  
Curly blond hair, bright blue eyes, around 2½-3ft tall, thin and light-weight silver armor, large, pointy ears…_


	4. Hawks and Flowers

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

I watched in silence as Dib peeked over the edge of the tree branch, staring at the bears ambling about on the dimly-lit, mossy ground below us. He'd been like that for quite some time, and I wasn't sure what he was doing. His behavior was very unexpected, with how excited he'd been about continuing on his bear-hunt after I'd rescued him a little while ago. Maybe he needed to plan out a strategy in his mind, or something, but in the time he'd spent thus far observing the bears, I could have killed who knew how many.

Whatever he was doing, I was getting extremely bored after having idly sat on that branch for so long.

Giving the boy one last glance, I quickly stood and pulled my bow out. He looked up at me in surprise as I tugged lightly on the bowstring, leaning over the edge of the branch to search for a target.

"What are you doing?" he asked, almost whispering.

Wasn't it obvious?

"Training," I answered at once, raising an eyebrow as he also scrambled to his feet. Jumping off the branch, I landed on a lower one to get a clearer shot at the ground. I let my knees relax as Dib clumsily fell beside me, almost tipping off the bough as it swayed up and down.

He tightly wrapped his arms around my leg to steady himself. "Don't leave me here!" he exclaimed indignantly.

Removing an arrow from my quiver, my eyes narrowed slightly at his words. What was I supposed to do when all he did was stare at the ground? I came here to train, not to waste my time watching potential prey wander about.

"I do not understand why you are in the tree in the first place," I said quietly, pushing him away from me in annoyance.

"B-because you are, duh!" he grumbled, reluctantly letting my leg go and instead grabbing the branch.

Not seeing what that had to do with anything, I wordlessly slipped onto the branch below us, and strung my arrow as I walked closer to one of the bears. I was an archer, of course I'd be on a perch somewhere. But since he was a warrior, how in the world was he supposed to fight from all the way up here? I doubted he was planning on throwing his swords at whatever he was going to fight.

I shot him a glare over my shoulder when he suddenly jumped onto my branch again, breaking my concentration and aim. "Wait for me!" he yelled, completely ruining our cover.

With a tired sigh, I watched as the bear I was aiming for looked up at us and snarled, loping over to the tree trunk. Dib suddenly yelled in fright and grabbed me again as the bear began to climb. I quickly shot my arrow into the bear's shoulder in an attempt to hinder its climbing abilities, but it didn't work very well.

"Let go!" I snapped, briefly glowering down at Dib while I pulled out another arrow and drew it back. It buried itself into the tree trunk as Dib threw me off balance, nearly making me fall.

"But the bear is coming!" he wailed, holding on all the tighter when the bear let out another growl. My poor leg was starting to go numb in his grip.

"Go kill it, then! You have _swords_!" I yelled, yanking on the back of his top in an effort to detach him from my leg. He wildly shook his head, wrapping his legs around mine as well in a complete and utter refusal to cooperate.

For the moment, I gave up on trying to pry him off, and focused on the bear instead.

Drawing back a third arrow, I shot at the monster's head. I swore silently as the arrow planted itself in the tree like the second had. The bear clambered up the last few feet, and grabbed the branch we were on. Its angry roaring as it hefted itself onto the branch was soon joined with Dib's ear-splitting screams of terror.

Starting to feel somewhat afraid, I awkwardly stepped backward and reached for a fourth arrow. My eyes widened as a loud crack snapped through the air and I suddenly found myself falling to the ground with Dib, the broken tree branch, and the bear. Pulling out my wings, I flapped them as hard as I could to keep Dib and I from joining the bear's descent. The branch and the bear landed on the ground with heavy thuds and crashes, and the monster slowly got to its feet, staring at us as I lifted us safely to another branch nearby.

Feeling extremely angry over the situation, I shot several arrows at the bear's scruffy, upturned face, mostly missing in my heated attacks, but a few did deeply bury themselves in the bear itself, and it roared in pain as it finally collapsed, its skull not unlike a pincushion at that point.

**"AEOLUS HAS DEFEATED FOREST BEAR! EXPERIENCE +150! NEW SKILL LEARNED: FURIOUS VOLLEY!"**

Breathing heavily, I unstrung my bow, and put it in my quiver. Dib was still hanging on, not seeming to realize the fight was over. "Let me go," I ordered quietly, forcing my voice to remain steady. When Dib didn't respond, I roughly grabbed both of his arms and yanked them off my leg, having to use all of my strength to do so. "I _said_ LET ME GO!" I bellowed in his face as I bent down to try to remove the rest of him as well.

He blinked slowly, looking shocked at my anger, but finally obeyed.

Without another glance at him, I jumped off the branch and lowered myself to the ground to pick up the loot. I tugged my arrows out of the bear's head, and clenched my jaw to bite back the rest of the anger that was threatening to leak out. Why in the world had Dib done that? Looking for teammates, my ass. More like looking for a shield. I'd almost died because he'd acted so stupidly. It was just a NPC. It wasn't a _real_ bear. There was nothing at all to be afraid of if he just attacked the damn thing. This was the main reason why I hadn't wanted to train with someone else; it was nothing but a hindrance, and of no use to me at all.

Cramming the loot into my pouch, I watched impatiently as Dib slowly climbed down branch-by-branch from the high perch until he was low enough to jump to the ground. He landed lightly in the sparse grass, and I walked past him toward the edge of the wood, rather than going to look for another bear.

Small footsteps crunching over the fallen leaves and sticks told me he was still following, regardless of my outburst. I glanced at him over my shoulder. He silently wiped the tear tracks off his face, though new ones appeared, and sniffed slightly as he stumbled along, trying to match my much longer stride.

As we left the forest, I halted in my steps and knelt down in front of him. Rummaging around in my pouch for a moment, I pulled out a handkerchief I'd bought, and tugged his hands away from his reddening eyes. Feeling guilty for losing my temper, since he _was_ just a child, I carefully wiped the cloth over his face and brushed his curly hair away from his forehead. "Let's find something easier to train on," I suggested quietly, patting his flushed cheek.

He stared at me for a moment, and then suddenly hugged me, crying even harder. My eyebrows lowered in bewilderment, and I glanced at the side of his head, wishing he would let me go. "I'm sorry," he sobbed, nearly choking me with the death grip he had on my neck.

Leaning backward in an attempt to get away from him, I glanced around awkwardly, feeling glad that no other players were in the near vicinity. Rather than releasing me, Dib simply leaned forward to continue the hug, ignoring my escape efforts.

Starting to get annoyed again, I tugged on the back of his armor to make him let me go, but he wouldn't budge. Why did he feel the need to stick to me all of the time? Were all children so clingy? I certainly never had been. I didn't want to think about what would have happened to me if I'd dared to act childish around my father or the numerous house staff who had attended to me every day. They definitely would have given me a sound beating for behaving in such an improper manner.

Dib finally let me go after several minutes of crying all over the place, and smiled soggily. "Thanks."

"For what?" I asked, wiping his tears off my hair and shoulder with the damp handkerchief while quickly standing up to avoid getting hugged again.

"I thought you were going to leave," he answered, sniffing one last time and beaming up at me.

I gave him a blank look before putting my handkerchief back in my pouch and turning away. Leaving him did seem like it would be less of a bother to me, but I wasn't going to just go. I'd already agreed to train with him, after all. I wasn't going to go back on my word.

"And why would I do that?"

He hurried forward and fell into step beside me. "Because, you were so mad at me!"

Of course I was mad. I doubted anyone else would have had a different reaction to getting grabbed by some strange, screaming kid and then almost getting killed by a bear as a result of said kid's refusal to cooperate.

Why would he even play Second Life if he was so terrified of fighting? He could have at least picked a different class, one that kept him out of harm's way, like a priest or something. But, since he seemed so young, perhaps he had simply made the choice of warrior because it sounded like it would be exciting. I supposed not many children had much foresight.

"Where are we going?" Dib inquired, glancing around the field.

"Nowhere in particular," I said vaguely, wondering what else there was around to kill. I didn't want to take him to those slugs I'd been training on. Simple bears were bad enough, who knew what would happen if poison was put into the situation. He'd probably get melted.

I quickly directed my steps toward one of the sparser sections of the forest where I remembered there were hawks, and hoped those would be easy enough, since they were rather small, and low leveled.

"Your name is hard to remember," Dib suddenly announced, tapping his chin with one finger. He glanced up at me, but I stayed silent, not knowing what to say to him, as I saw nothing difficult about it at all. "Do you have a nickname or something?"

"No."

"May I give you one? I promise it won't be weird! I'll think up a good one!" His blue eyes were shining with hope and eagerness as he skipped sideways through the grass to be able to face me while we walked.

"I do not care," I conceded in exasperation, making him look somewhat annoyed at my lack of enthusiasm.

"Okay, then…" he muttered cautiously, looking away and falling silent, much to my relief. Several minutes passed and we finally entered into the hawk territory in the more open and airy section of the forest. The trees here were much thinner and scraggly than the immense sizes of the full, leafy ones near the bears.

"Why are you so quiet?" Dib asked, drawing out a twinge of irritation in me. I'd been getting comfortable with the lack of conversation.

"There is nothing to say," I explained at once, pointlessly hoping that he would read between the lines and stop talking, though I knew he definitely wouldn't.

Surprise popped onto his face, and he quirked a golden eyebrow. "Yes there is! There's _plenty_ to say!" he retorted. I questioningly glanced at him, and kept my mouth tightly shut. No response came to mind, proving my point.

He waved a hand at the sky. "You could say what a nice day it is. It's so sunny and warm."

"That is obvious, there is no need to point it out," I digressed flatly, scanning the trees for any nearby hawk nests we could attack. A moment hadn't gone by that the weather wasn't nice in Second Life. I saw no worth in talking about the weather unless it had something to do with training. Like if it was windy in some area or another, I'd need to have more reserve stamina potions to make up for getting blown off course, or something along those lines. Why would I compliment the weather if it had nothing to do with anything?

Anyway, we were near _Sun_ City. What was he expecting of the weather? Blizzards?

Dib shrugged. "You could say whatever you're thinking, then. That's what I always do. It gives lots of topics for conversation, saying things that randomly pop into your head. What're you thinking about right now?"

"My thoughts are not interesting enough to talk about," I answered with finality, stopping under a nested tree, and tilting my head back to watch the adult hawks swooping around.

"You won't know until you say them," he insisted. "Go ahead!"

Sighing, I pulled out my bow and an arrow. Why was he being so annoying? I didn't want to talk, and that was that. If he felt the need to blabber about things, he could go right ahead, so long as it didn't hinder my training any further than it was already being hindered.

Ignoring his continued questions, I shot a hawk through the wing, and it fell to the dusty ground with a squawk. Dib shrieked in surprise and quickly hid behind my leg, finally ceasing in his non-stop chatter. I stepped away from him and waved a hand at the struggling bird. "I will bring a few down for you," I offered before taking off and landing on a tree branch high above the ground.

"No, come back! COME BA-A-A-ACK! _NOW_!" he screamed, grabbing the tree and shaking it as if he was trying to make me fall out.

Glaring down at him, I wrapped my free arm around the thin trunk as the tree and I wildly swayed back and forth through the air. "Stop that!"

"DON'T LEAVE ME DOWN HERE!" he yelled, glancing fearfully over his shoulder at the hawk, which was just sitting on the ground and looking confused after its long fall, not even facing him, much less attempting to attack him. "TAKE ME WITH YOU!"

I lifted myself off the branch and settled in a different tree instead, only to fly off again as Dib ran after me. "Just kill the bird!" I snapped down at him.

"NO! IT'S TOO SCARY!" he cried, shaking his head and leaving the fallen hawk by itself as he tore through the trees.

Turning myself around, I quickly flew back to the poor hawk, and dropped to the ground beside it. It may have only been a NPC, but I didn't like the thought of leaving it there to suffer with my arrow poking out of its wing.

It clicked its beak together angrily, and shuffled toward me, dragging its wounded wing across the sporadic patches of prickly grass. Pulling out an arrow, I shot it through the chest at close range as it lunged forward, and then swung my bow at it, knocking it to one side. It fell to the ground in a daze, and I stomped on its head, easily squishing it underfoot. I winced at the sickening crunch noise its skull made, and I was once again filled with absolute hatred for such disgusting close-combat situations. I would never understand why anyone would want to be a warrior.

**"AEOLUS HAS DEFEATED HAWK! EXPERIENCE +100! NEW SKILL LEARNED: SKULL CRUSH!"**

Dib's head popped out from behind one of the nearby tree trunks a moment later, not that hiding had done him much good, since the trees were hardly bigger around than flag poles. He shot me a relieved smile and hurried over as I started plucking the hawk's soft brown feathers I could use to fletch more arrows with later. Dib put one hand on my shoulder and breathed an airy sigh. "Thanks for killing it! Did you see the way it was looking at me? It looked like it was about to peck my eyeballs out and then eat them! Really scary."

Shaking his hand off after I'd collected all of the loot, I stood up and walked away from him. Trying not to feel irritated as he immediately chased after me, I searched the air for another hawk. "Dib."

"Yeah?"

"Please, tell me something you can actually train on," I requested quietly. "I am not going to waste my arrows on hawks if you are just going to run away every time I bring one down for you."

"W-well, that one was so huge, s'why I didn't wanna fight it," Dib grumbled, crossing his arms. "Get me a smaller one!"

Launching myself off the ground, I flew toward a nest and landed on the branch beside it. Trying to drown out Dib's renewed yelling at my desertion, I killed the mother hawk and tipped the nest over. All of the baby hawks that had been sitting inside fell to the ground, screeching loudly.

Dib gave them one look, and promptly ran the other way.

Glowering at his retreating back, I flew toward him. "What is wrong _this_ time?"

"There's too many, of course! How d'you expect me to fight so many all at once? Stupid!" he yelled, giving me an indignant frown as I landed in front of him to stop his retreat. I glanced in disbelief toward the three baby birds laying on the ground, and looked back at Dib. He kept his arms crossed stubbornly. Striding over to the chirping monsters, I picked one up by the neck and angrily threw it at Dib, probably half-killing it in the process.

"There you go. One tiny bird," I huffed.

Dib stared fearfully down at the completely helpless hawk for a moment, and slowly drew one of his swords. Closing his eyes, he quickly stabbed it in the bird's general direction, missing by several feet.

I didn't bother to watch whatever ridiculous thing he did next, and bent down to pick up a second bird. Tossing it by a different tree, I left the third where it was and took off again to find a hawk for myself to kill. One that was actually worth killing. The urge to leave Dib there and go train on my own was starting to grow, but I quickly beat it down. I'd promised to train with him. My dissatisfaction with how things were going was my own fault as I'd agreed without being aware of his complete and total lack of even the tiniest shred of courage.

But he really didn't have to be _that_ scared of them…

"Al!"

…since they were just baby birds, barely the size of a house cat or a puppy. One of them didn't even have any feathers yet. Not scary at all, I thought, rolling my eyes as I slowly drew my bow back to shoot an adult hawk out of one of the spindly trees several yards away. Very ugly—a little funny-looking, really—but not scary in the slightest.

"Al! C'mere!"

I paused and looked down in bewilderment. Dib was waving one of his bloodied swords at me. Glancing toward where I'd left him, I saw the chopped-up corpses of the baby hawks littering the messy ground. So he'd actually managed to kill them. I wondered how much experience he'd gained. Probably as much as a flesh-eating slime gave.

Exasperatedly shaking my head at how ridiculous this all was, I turned my attention back to the hawk and carefully aimed.

"A-A-A-AL! STOP IGNORING ME, AND COME HERE!"

Lowering my bow, I blinked slowly, trying to gather up the last shreds of my patience while his screaming echoed around me. I apparently wasn't allowed any time to myself now that he was here. And what in the world did he just call me?

I reluctantly let myself down to the ground and he ran up, looking extremely pleased with himself as he importantly puffed up his chest, hands on both hips. "I killed them all, though it was so scary!" he pointlessly told me after I silently stared at him for a long moment. Grabbing my hand, he pulled me toward another tree. "Do it again!" he ordered.

Sighing in resignation, I flew upward and repeated the nest-tipping process. Under his firm and absolute command, we continued that for several boring hours. But I supposed that it wasn't a complete waste of time on my part, since I discovered many of the nests had little treasures—coins, pieces of jewelry, precious stones, even a few small weapons here and there—stashed inside amongst the feathers and twigs. It definitely wasn't anywhere near as good of training as I'd done on my own, but the extra loot helped somewhat, though I let Dib have the majority of whatever I found, since the baby hawks barely dropped anything, aside from their corpses, which weren't particularly useful, unless one was perhaps attempting to bait some other sort of prey.

I was also able to make quite a few arrows while I waited for Dib to finish killing each batch of hawks I supplied for him, thus saving me a lot of money I'd be using for archery supplies on my next trip to the city.

Still, I was wishing I was on my own. Being around another person for so long was exhausting.

Leaning against the thin trunk of one of the trees, I watched Dib furiously hack at one of the tiny hawks, blood disgustingly spraying all over the place—how did that itty bitty bird contain so much blood, anyway…?—and wondered if he would mind if I logged out of the game early. Waking up didn't really seem like it would be a very good way to recharge myself, since waking up meant I had to get ready for work, but I didn't want to be here any longer.

Dib romped up to me a moment later, and smiled happily as he sheathed his sword. "Let's go to the city, my pouch is full!"

So much for logging out early.

Putting away my knife and the unfinished arrow I was holding, I nodded at him and slowly unfolded myself from my seat in the grass. He hurried off ahead of me, frequently pausing in his steps to stare at me while I followed after, as if he was making sure I wasn't attempting to escape.

I watched in silence as he bounded through the grass, purposefully looping around trees, and crouching down to look at things that caught his attention on the ground. It was quite easy to get mad at him for being so annoying, but moments like this where he was simply acting like a playful child made me smile slightly.

Once we left the tree line, I looked around, feeling a bit disoriented. We were on the opposite side of the forest from Sun City.

Glancing over my shoulder, I frowned. I definitely didn't want to walk all the way around the extensive forest yet again, and I certainly didn't want to go through it, since those bears—and probably other equally _terrible_ things—were inside. Nor did I particularly want to carry Dib, but since flying to the city seemed like the quickest method…

"Dib," I called, extending my wings and stretching them out to their full span, shaking them slightly to limber myself up.

Dib looked up at me from the patch of colorful wildflowers he was sitting in. "What?"

"Come here, please," I asked, withdrawing a stamina potion from my pouch and taking a long drink. He quickly stood up, tightly clutching a fistful of flowers, and ran up to me as I knelt in the grass, pulling my hair over one shoulder. "I want to fly to the city."

He raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise, but nodded without a word and clambered onto my back, firmly hooking his knees under my wing joints and tightly gripping my shoulders. I cautiously beat my wings for a moment, experimentally lifting us a few feet off the ground to make sure he wouldn't slip off. When he didn't move, I raised us up over the trees, and shot off in the direction of the city, flying much easier now that I wasn't attempting to awkwardly hold him in my arms, as I had been earlier.

An hour later, I stared down at the map of the continent I had spread across the grass in front of myself, and scratched my chin for a moment before using my quill pen to ink in a little note on the far side of the forest where Dib and I had been killing hawks. Trying to find training spots was an extremely difficult task, though it had never been before. Every new option I thought up seemed to be a bad one in regard to Dib and his cowardice. Asking him for input was useless; everything was a good choice in his opinion.

A light tugging on my hair made me turn my head slightly. I questioningly glanced back at Dib, wondering what he was doing. He waved a flower at me and smiled brightly. My eyes widened, and I quickly ran a hand through my hair, pulling out a small flower. I frowned down at the little blossom, threw it away, and undid the braid he'd been making while I wasn't paying attention. "Why are you putting plants in my hair?"

"They aren't _plants_!" Dib retorted, gathering my hair together again. "They're _flowers_!"

"Flowers _are_ plants. I do not want leaves tangled in my hair, so please, stop."

"It'll look pretty when I'm finished! And I'm not tangling it, so quit your complaining!"

"I do not want to be pretty!"

"Too bad, 'cause you're gonna be pretty whether you want to or not! You're already pretty and girly, even without flowers adding to your looks, anyway, so let me do your hair!"

Feeling slightly offended at his remark that I was like a girl, I stood up, snatched my map off of the ground, and quickly rolled it around itself, squashing it back into my pouch. Dib stared up at me in disappointment, many brightly colored flowers still clutched in his hand. Wordlessly turning away, I pulled my hair over my shoulder and ran my fingers through it a few times to make sure there was nothing else stuck in it.

Dib tugged on my arm's bracer, and I reluctantly looked down at him. "C'mere," he said, waving a hand at me. I gave a suspicious glance to his fingers, making sure he wasn't holding the flowers anymore, and then crouched down in front of him, satisfied that he wasn't going to try anything again.

"You've got a petal, here," he explained, smirking slightly as he raised a hand toward my ear.

He slowly removed a purple petal from my hair, and I quickly stood up again. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he responded, sounding annoyed that his doll had been taken away. Dropping the petal to the grass, he walked along beside me, frowning slightly. "You're so mean, Al," he muttered under his breath. "They were just flowers… Wasn't like I was trying to put dirty plant roots in, or something. Geeze. So mean."

"I was not trying to be mean; I asked you to stop, and you refused. What was I supposed to do?"

"You coulda let me finish doing your hair," he suggested, glancing up at me in a hopeful way as if I'd let him try again. "It's so long and nice, you could do so many things with it. It's kinda a shame to just have it plain."

"I like my hair just fine as it is. I do not want decorations," I told him, letting my hair fall down my back again. Dib made a grumbly noise in return, and crossed his arms in a pout. I gave him an amused glance and patted his head for a moment. "But thank you for the thought."

He looked embarrassed, and nodded silently. "Mm," he finally mumbled, grabbing my hand off his head and pulling me forward. For once, I didn't try to take my hand back from his clutches, and let him hold it as we walked on.


	5. Given Relief

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note –**__ Just to form a little time line for clarification: this takes place during volume three of the manhua (or volume two of the novels, if you prefer) when the Grand Melee is coming up, two months after the events of this story's first two chapters, and one month after the previous chapter._

* * *

"Do we really have to do this?" I inquired hesitantly, looking about myself at the crowded Adventurers' Guild in Star City. I hadn't ever really taken into consideration just how many people played Second Life. It was starting to look like the entire human race—and several other species, besides—was attempting to squash itself into that guild hall. It had been bad enough in Sun City, and there were far less people than were walking around in this one place alone. It was stifling with all of the players pressing in from all sides. I'd never been claustrophobic, but I was starting to understand the feelings of the people who suffered from it.

"'Course we've gotta! Why're you so scared? Sheesh," Dib said excitedly, bouncing his heels off my chest and patting his little hands on the top of my head as he looked at our surroundings. When we'd arrived, I'd picked him up and let him sit on my shoulders for fear of the tiny boy getting trampled underfoot amidst the people. I doubted anyone would notice him getting flattened with all the noise and bustling players.

"I'm not particularly scared…" I muttered, feeling somewhat sullen at his lack of sympathy, and grabbed his ankles so he'd stop kicking me. "I just don't like getting jostled."

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," he answered in a gallant tone that didn't match his cutesy appearance at all. I wasn't convinced by his assuring words. Especially since at that very moment, I was the one protecting him. Yet again.

"What are we even looking for?" I asked, frowning at the mass of faces swarming in front of me. In an effort to get out of the worst of the crowds, I edged toward the sides of the large hall, rather than near the middle where Dib had told me to stand. I breathed much easier once I wasn't getting compressed by the mob of people.

"I told you," Dib said somewhat impatiently, acting as if I'd asked him several times already, though I hadn't. "We're here for teammates!"

"That is so vague," I grumbled with annoyance. There were as many choices for teammates in this place as there were grains of sand on a beach. I had no idea where we should even start. There were many others looking for teammates as well, but with so many people talking all at once, I could barely distinguish one voice from another. The hall wasn't even organized into sections, so team recruiters, traders, and whoever else were all simply mixed together, forming one huge chaotic mess.

"Why do we need more, anyway? I think we're fine with just us."

Dib put his hands on my forehead and forcefully tilted my head back. I stared up at him blankly as his pale eyebrows lowered. He poked my forehead repeatedly and finally answered commandingly, "We need more because _I said_ that we need more."

With a resigned sigh, I shifted Dib into a more comfortable position on my shoulders and tried to look around properly, wondering just when it had been that I'd started giving in so easily to that little boy's requests and orders.

"Well, we should narrow down our choices," I reluctantly began.

"Good idea!" Dib pointlessly agreed.

I ignored his sarcastic tone and was silent for a moment to see if he had any opinion on the matter. He didn't say anything further, and instead began using the top of my head as an armrest. I cleared my throat and tried to organize a plan. "Since I'm an archer, long-range attackers aren't really crucial–"

"A magician of some sort wouldn't be too bad, though," Dib cut in.

I nodded and continued, "And you're a warrior, so we've got that covered…" Not that he was much of a useful warrior, seeing as how he ran away in a panic nearly every time we fought something.

I hummed thoughtfully for a moment. "A priest? Or a magician? Or–"

"Or whoever we want," he ended for me.

"Oh, thank you for the input. You're so helpful." I inadvertently rolled my eyes at his lacking contributions to our dilemma. I'd finally gotten a friend who had experience with games, and he was completely and hopelessly flippant.

"I know," he concurred with a giggle.

I shook my head slightly, and he slipped his arms off while I twisted about to look at him in slight annoyance. "_You_ are the one who wanted to come here, would you quit being so blasé about this? I thought you had some sort of person in mind."

Dib silently stared at me for a moment and then sighed. "Okay, fine. Let's leave for now and think about it for a while." I narrowed my eyes at him as he spoke, and he cautiously leaned away. "W-what?"

"Did you really force me to spend nearly a week traveling from Sun City to here, simply to stand around in this guild, without giving any thought to teammate choices beforehand…?"

His eyes widened and an forcefully innocent look settled on his face. He stared at some spot on the opposite side of the hall and shrugged a tiny bit. "Maybe," he muttered almost inaudibly. Upon hearing his answer, I abruptly turned around and briskly walked toward the exit. He suddenly gripped either side of my head as he'd almost fallen off my shoulders when I moved. "Wait! It's not like I didn't give it _any_ thought!"

"Stop lying, you just said that you hadn't!" I snapped, hurrying outside as fast as I could, though it wasn't very fast due to the large number of people going in and out of the guild.

"I didn't mean it! And I said 'maybe'!" he whined and tugged lightly on my earring as if he thought that would turn me around. The action only made me more annoyed, since I felt like he was treating my earring like a cow's nose ring.

"Come on, Al," he pleaded.

"I'm not going back in there," I said resolutely, ignoring the pathetic whimpering noises he was sending at me. "At least, not until we've given some serious thought—Awning!" I abruptly warned him as I walked past a shop entrance. Dib quickly ducked down to avoid hitting his head as I walked underneath the colorful cloth waving in the cool, night breeze, and I continued, "Given thought as to what sort of teammate we want to find."

"Think, first. Teammate, later," he clarified.

"Exactly," I affirmed with a nod. He had finally seen what I was trying to tell him. Whether or not the impulsive boy would follow my suggestion was another matter.

As we got further from the Adventurers' Guild, the crowd thinned somewhat. I stopped outside one of the larger taverns in Star City, because Dib's stomach had been making extremely loud noises right next to my ears, and gently lowered Dib to the cobblestone street. We walked inside the brightly-lit restaurant, and I was very happy to see it was relatively empty. There were only a few people here and there, aside from what looked like an entire team seated near one of the large windows.

I slipped my quiver over my head and leaned it against an empty table as Dib and I quickly sat down. A neatly-dressed NPC waitress handed us menus a few moments later. I nodded at her in thanks, but didn't open it. Running my finger along the edge of the thick paper, I watched as Dib disappeared behind his. "May I ask why you are so determined to get us new teammates?"

"It'll be good for you. Since you're so quiet all the time, more friends would be nice," he answered without looking away from the menu. "Oh! They have pie! Al, they have pie! Let's get one! I want blueberry!"

"Yeah…" I agreed absently, and glanced at the team seated by the window, laughing and chattering animatedly to one another. Having more people around did look like it would be a bit fun, but that thought didn't make me any more social than I already was. And Dib was already quite a handful, I doubted I'd be able to take on several more people at the same time.

I looked back to Dib and frowned as I noticed he was staring at me, almost hopefully. "I suppose you're right about the teammates," I commented slowly, and let out a long sigh. Getting corrected was not something I was very enthusiastic about becoming familiar with. But I knew Dib only had good intentions, though he went about it in a very annoying way.

He shot me a knowing smile and waved over the waitress. I finally opened my own menu and ran my eyes down the lengthy list of dishes. I wasn't feeling hungry at all after our pointless trip to the guild. I wondered if we would be able to find suitable teammates without having to go back to that hot and smelly guild hall. After all, there were no rules—none I was aware of, anyway—that stated one had to be inside the Adventurers' Guild to recruit people. Dib and I had been teammates—only by word of mouth, since we weren't officially registered—for near a month now, and we'd had no problems at all.

"Hey, Al," Dib whispered to me around the corner of his menu a few minutes later.

I stopped vacantly staring at the pictures of food, and looked around the edge of my own menu, wondering why he was suddenly being so secretive. "What is it?"

"That long-haired warrior over there has been staring at you the whole time we've been here. It's creeping me out," he continued quietly, his words edged with concern. His eyes glanced toward the team sitting by the window.

I waited a few moments, and then sent a subtle look in their direction. The person in question—a silvery-haired dark elf, judging by his looks—was indeed staring at me, with what looked like a very angry, and somewhat confused expression. One of his teammates also seemed to be giving me an abnormal amount of attention, though much less than the other, around the edge of the decorative fan that he was waving about, making his brown hair wave to and fro in the slight breeze.

My eyes widened in surprise and I looked back at Dib. "Wh-why…?"

"What's the point in asking me?" Dib snorted. "Do you know him?"

I shook my head slightly. "I've never seen him before, that I can recall. Anyway, I–" I started, but froze as the whole team suddenly stood up and began filing past us, toward the door. I was feeling relieved at their departure, until the dark elf stopped beside our table and looked down at me with his mouth open slightly. Hiding behind my menu definitely wasn't going to work anymore, so I instead leaned back in my chair and cautiously stared up at him, waiting for him to say something.

"Are," the person started, but paused, as if unsure how to continue. He questioningly glanced at Dib and then back at me. His pale eyes narrowed as he tapped one hand on the hilt of the rapier handing off his belt, looking as if he was contemplating stabbing me. "May I have your name?" he finally asked, sounding very suspicious about something.

"Why?" I inquired in return.

His expression soured at my reluctance to cooperate, and one corner of his mouth turned downward. He glanced toward the door and shifted restlessly where he stood. "I didn't mean to seem nosy," he said at last, and smiled politely at me. "You just look a lot like… someone I know. Sorry to disturb you."

Before I had a chance to ask him who it was that I looked like, he shot Dib and I a swift goodbye and hurried outside to join his waiting team. He'd said 'someone' with a level of animosity I'd only ever encountered when dealing with my father. But the idea of someone he knew that looked like me made me extremely curious. I wondered if I should dare to get my hopes up. Was it just a coincidence? Or…

"Al?" Dib called quietly. I turned to looked back at him. He was worriedly glancing between me and the door. "You okay?"

"Yes," I muttered, nodding slightly. I pushed the menu away from myself as the waitress finally reappeared, carrying a giant pie for Dib. My mouth dropped open in disbelief as he picked up his fork and proceeded to eat. The pie was easily several times bigger than his entire head.

The waitress cleared her throat impatiently, and I realized I hadn't ordered anything yet. I held out my menu for her to take. "I would like a glass of water and two slices of honey bread, please."

She nodded and snatched the menu away from me, spinning on her heel and hurrying off toward the kitchens. Dib looked up from his pie with a raised eyebrow as he popped a giant forkful of blueberry pie into his mouth. He chewed silently for a moment and then pointed the fork at me. "Ish tat relly all you're eatin'?"

"Don't talk with your mouth full," I reproved, watching in disgust as little pieces of pie flew out of his mouth and landed on the once-clean tablecloth. I felt like I was dining with a toddler who had no manners whatsoever. A short while after we'd first met, I'd been very surprised to find out his real age. Regardless of his misleading looks and behavior, he was twenty-four, the same age as me.

"Yes, it's all. I'm not hungry."

"You're–" he said thickly, and then paused for a long moment to swallow his mouthful. I wondered if he had actually listened to my words, or if it was just difficult to talk around the pie. Probably the latter.

"You're going to regret it later, after flying for a while," he finally continued.

"That's why I got _two_ pieces of bread," I answered blandly. "One for now and one for later whenever I want it. Anyway, I restocked on stamina potions when we stopped at the shop earlier. I'll be fine."

He let out a long sigh and stabbed his fork into the top of his pie again. "You're the only person I've heard of who lives off _potions_. How do you even do that? Don't you get hungry, not eating anything for days on end?"

I shook my head. "Potions are more space efficient, and are faster for restoring my stats, since I can easily drink them while flying and fighting. Also, I weigh less drinking potions instead of eating food, which in turn uses less stamina."

"But," he said hurriedly, as if trying to figure out some way to convince me. He didn't seem to notice that he was pulverizing his pie with repeated stabs. "But eating is fun! Especially when you're with other people! You get to bond! Or something…"

"Well, I wouldn't know," I murmured quietly, wishing he would hurry up and finish his food so we could leave. I hadn't eaten a proper meal with another person since long before my brother left home. Not that I'd told Dib about that. Or anything else about my real life, for that matter. I was somewhat afraid of what his reaction might be. Afraid that he would start distancing himself from me like everyone else did. A part of me knew that Dib wasn't the sort of person who would do things like that, but I was still feeling very hesitant to tell him such things. I'd only known him for a month, after all.

Eating was such an inconvenient task, anyway. There were so many other things I could be doing with my time, rather than sitting at a table for however long it took me to clean off my plate. I always found some way to eat my meals while working, and ate only what was necessary, which was usually very little, if anything.

Dib finally stopped smashing his pie and sent me a small, wondering smile. "You sure are weird."

Pressing my lips together, I looked at him blankly for a moment, wondering if he was making fun of me. I dropped my eyes to stare at the table top instead, feeling slightly angry and hurt at his words.

So what if I was weird? He also was hardly what most people would consider to be normal. Anyway, I was who I was, I couldn't help it. Why did people always want me to be something I wasn't? Like my father wanting me to be more like my genius of a brother, when I really was quite average. I was extremely tired of getting compared to other people.

"But weird in a _good_ way," Dib hastily added a moment later as he looked me over. I glanced up at him in disbelief. He smiled widely, and pushed his empty pie dish to one side. Surprise threaded through my dark mood as I wondered just when it had been that he'd eaten the rest.

"How is being weird good?" I asked dubiously, attempting to remove the pie from my mind.

"It makes things interesting!" he answered at once. "If you were normal, and if I was normal, everything we did would be so normal, it would be boring. And anyway, what's normal for one person isn't the same as what's normal for someone else. So you could say we really are _normal_," he finished, sliding his chair away from the small table as the waitress finally walked up with my honey bread and water.

I stared at my food for a moment after she'd set it down on top of the white tablecloth and took away Dib's empty pie dish, and I then looked back up at Dib, feeling somewhat dazed. I'd never seen things in that way before. Not once had I thought perhaps it was okay to simply be me, since everyone else around me seemed to think that I alone was insufficient.

Laughing lightly, I leaned back in my chair and smiled faintly at Dib as he stood up in preparation to leave. "Your logic is bizarre," I muttered while I wrapped up my slices of bread in a clean handkerchief, slid the bundle into my pouch to save for later, and quickly drank down my glass of cold water.

Dib shot me a falsely offended look as I stood up and handed him the money for my food. I pulled my quiver back over my head and watched with amusement as he huffily stomped to the counter to pay. Afterward, he hurried back and we stepped outside onto the star-lit street. I breathed deeply for a moment and then looked down at Dib. He smirked and patted my leg. "Okay, let's go train."

I crouched down beside him. Shoving my quiver to one side, he seated himself on my back and I slowly released my wings so they didn't hit him. Glancing about myself to make sure there was no one nearby so I could take off, I quickly began to beat my wings and lifted us both into the air. Dib tightened his hold on my shoulders slightly as we flew over the dark city. I felt much lighter after our conversation. Having a real friend was very nice after being alone for so many years.

"Dib," I called back after a few minutes of silence.

"What is it?" he asked loudly, nearly yelling so I could hear him over the wind whistling past us.

"Thanks."

He laughed and pressed a warm hand on my back as we left the city walls behind. "Anytime."


	6. Abandonment

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

The cold wind rushed past my ears in forceful gusts, making it very difficult for me to hear Dib's yelled instructions as he directed me over the grassy hills several hours worth of travel north of Star City. Wild boars of a wide variety of sizes, ranging from nearly as big as hippos to as small as puppies, were scampering—if whatever they were doing could be counted as "scampering"—across the ground blurring past underneath us. They looked nearly identical to their real-life counterparts, except these had enormous spikes jutting out from the backs of their necks, and several of the larger ones were breathing fire.

Yes, completely normal.

Dipping one wing slightly, I circled around behind the monsters and steadied myself as Dib carefully slipped off my right shoulder, and I refrained from wincing as he accidentally pulled my hair on the way down. Gripping the studded shoulder guard on my leather vest, he slowly lowered himself underneath me, and I took hold of the back of his armored top. Swinging freely through the dusky air, he unsheathed both of his short swords from his belt and clutched them tightly in his hands.

I hoped this wasn't a bad idea. No, forget hoping. I knew this was a bad idea, and I wasn't going to be pointlessly optimistic. But Dib, brimming with confidence from some unknown source, had insisted. It seemed every time we started a new training session, he would completely forget how frightened he'd been the last time, and would then come up with some new, daring plan to kill whatever mobs we were aiming for. So far, none of his brilliant ideas had worked. He was persistent, at least.

"Ready?" I yelled down at Dib as I swooped toward one of the smallest boars in a hope that it would be less of a challenge. It began squealing as it saw us coming, and took off over the top of one of the hills, separating itself from the rest of the mobs in its fright. I smirked at its retreating back. Even a boar knew when it was at a disadvantage, and it was just a NPC. Yet Dib—a real human—couldn't seem to get it through his head that some attack methods simply weren't a good idea. Not in his case, anyway.

"Ready!" Dib confirmed. I could feel his body stiffen up in preparation. Sending the back of his curly head one more worried glance, I reluctantly let go of his top, and off he flew.

Or fell.

Pulling out my bow as fast as I could, I strung it and whipped out an arrow, but didn't move to shoot, because Dib had scolded me several times in the past for unwantedly "interfering" in his fights. Though moments later, he would usually cry for help and hide behind me.

Dib continued to fall toward the terrified boar, screaming the whole way. If anything, the vocal additions to his descent only heightened the boar's fear, and it began zig-zagging through the long grass as if it couldn't decide in its panic which direction it wanted to run. Somehow, Dib managed to land on top of it, and knocked it off its hooves. He went silent and simply laid there, unmoving, on top of the twitching animal.

For a very long, horrifying moment, I thought I'd killed him. Fear filled me as I quickly landed and ran over to him, vaguely remembering to stick my bow and arrow back into my quiver. I nearly tripped over my own feet in my hurry to get to him, but I avoided falling down by flying over the last stretch of ground.

"Dib!" I yelled and dropped to my knees in the grass. I frantically yanked him off the half-dead boar and flipped him over. Sighing, I inspected him for injuries, my fear quickly disappearing, though my heart continued to pound in my chest. Except for being bruised a little, he was fine, and I was infinitely thankful that he'd somehow managed to avoid getting impaled on the boar's neck-spikes.

"Dib?" I quietly called again. He didn't respond, so I gently shook him, feeling annoyed at how his grand idea of being a "missile" had turned out. He'd been so confident that he would be able to take on any monster with this new tactic, and now, one boar later, he'd fainted in a very creepy-looking way with his eyes still open. It was a mystery to me as to how he'd managed to get to level forty-two while having no courage whatsoever against monsters.

Ignoring the guilt welling up, I slapped him across the face in an attempt to make him come to his senses.

"OUCH!" he yelled, squeezing his eyes shut and wildly waving his arms and legs at me as if he was trying to ward off attacks. "DON'T EAT ME! GO AWAY! A-A-AH! AL, SAVE ME! N-O-O-O!"

"Dib, stop!" I snapped at him, dodging his fists as he swung them around. I quickly grabbed his wrists and attempted to still his hands, using my weight to pin him to the ground. My efforts didn't do much, since he was far stronger than me. But I did manage to hinder his movements slightly.

After a minute of struggling, it seemed that he noticed he wasn't getting eaten, and his eyes finally opened. "Al?" he asked, blinking up at me blearily, and taking deep breaths to calm himself. I nodded down at him and cautiously let his hands go. Slowly turning his head, he looked toward the still-kicking boar laying beside us with his swords poking out of its back.

Dib was quiet for a moment, and then suddenly began to laugh. "Al!"

"W-what?" I looked down at him in confusion as he punched my knee in his mirth and continued laughing. There didn't seem to be anything funny about our situation. If anything, I'd thought he was going to burst into tears from the terrifying fall.

My eyes widened in concern as he did indeed start crying, but only because he was laughing so much. I hadn't thought I'd hit him _that_ hard.

Several minutes later, he gave a shuddering gasp and stood up as he wiped his face off, still chuckling slightly. I stayed seated in the grass and watched as he stepped over to the boar and yanked his swords out of its spine. It gave a snarling grunt and he quickly cut its throat, making it fall silent.

"Al!" he suddenly yelled, spinning on his heels and putting both hands on his hips.

"What?" I repeated, feeling somewhat startled at his intensity.

"My plan worked!" he declared triumphantly, looking like he'd just discovered something fantastic.

"Oh," I said with a slight nod. "Yes, I suppose it did."

His ecstatic face faded away as I stood up and walked past him to crouch next to the boar's corpse. I quickly began to break off the sharp, gray spikes from its neck—some for selling at the shops in town, and also some for making more arrowheads—and slipped them into a cloth bag hanging on my belt next to my pouch.

After a moment of silence, Dib sighed and started to help me strip the corpse for loot. "It sure takes a lot to get you excited about something, huh?" he muttered sullenly. "Not even a 'Good job, Dib!' or 'Oh boy, the boar is dead!' or anything…"

"Good job, Dib. Oh boy, the boar is dead," I echoed monotonously, bending over the boar's head and attempting to snap off its tusks, too. It was just a dead boar, and a tiny one, at that. What was there to get excited over? I'd been killing mobs for months, and not once did I feel excited over defeating them. A bit proud of myself at first, but that quickly disappeared. Killing monsters was just something that everyone did, not anything to get all riled up over.

"Wow, that was so heart-felt," Dib grumbled sardonically, and wiped the blood off his swords onto the dark grass before returning them to their sheaths. I glanced up at him in confusion as I put the tusks into the cloth bag and tied it shut.

Without looking at me, he flipped the boar over and started picking up the items it had dropped. "Would it kill you to sound at least a little interested in what we're doing?"

"I am interested in it," I said quietly, not knowing why he was suddenly so annoyed. I flinched as he abruptly thrust half the coins at me and a small roll of cloth, and I shakily took them from him, putting them away in my pouch.

"It doesn't sound like that to me," he replied with a frown, stashing away his share of the loot and then crossing his arms. "You always seem so bored, no matter what we're doing."

I dropped my eyes and stared at the blood-splattered ground. "I _am_ interested in it. Now that we've found a way you can train, we will be able to find out quicker what sort of teammates we want to look for, like you wanted. And we will also get experience faster as we get used to fighting like this."

"That's all? You just like the technical stuff?" he asked after I finished.

"What do you mean?" I looked up again and he stared at me with a hurt expression. Having backup with me while I trained was, at times, helpful. Why wouldn't I like it?

He sighed as if I was purposefully trying to be dense, stepped over to me, and leaned on my shoulder, playing with a handful of my hair as he slowly replied, "I suppose you could say that you're having a lot of fun training with _me_, like I do with you, regardless of whether or not the training itself is actually doing us any good…"

I opened my mouth to respond, finally seeing what he was talking about, but I didn't know what to say, so I closed it again. I'd never been in this kind of situation before. Then again, I hadn't been in a lot of situations before that I somehow found myself meandering through when I was with Dib.

Was I supposed to console him in some way? I wasn't even quite sure just what kind of mood he was in. I thought he'd known that I liked training with him, simply because it was him. If I didn't like him, I probably would have left him on top of that tree after I'd rescued him from those bears. And then I'd still be sitting in my little crevice shooting at poisonous slugs, all alone. I was endlessly thankful to him for pulling me out of the slump I hadn't known I'd been in.

When I didn't say anything, he gave me a disappointed glance and slowly walked a few feet away. With his back to me, he said quietly, "If I'm bothering you, and you'd rather go back to playing alone, then I'll leave. There's no point in us being teammates if we're not both enjoying being around one another."

My eyes widened in shock. That wasn't what I wanted at all. Dib was the only person I had anymore. My brother had left me, my father was anything but fatherly, and my friends were all… whatever they were. The thought of Dib abandoning me filled me with dread.

I desperately tried to think of something convincing to say to make him stay, but my mind was drawing a blank, as always. He peeked at me out of the corner of his eye. "That's not…" I sighed and bit my lip. Why did this have to be so difficult? How did the situation even turn into something so awkward? Only a few minutes ago, we'd been getting along just fine. Or so I'd thought.

Falling backward out of my crouching position, I sat down on the grass and ran a hand through my hair. I looked up at him pleadingly, and he finally turned around. "Please, I don't want you to go."

He didn't move for a moment, but then suddenly beamed and walked back over to stand in front of me. Without any warning, he punched my jaw. "That's for scaring me, idiot!" he yelled as I picked myself up from where I'd fallen over, and straightened out my aching wings in annoyance, having landed on top of them. He gleefully smiled at my indignant expression as I rubbed the stinging spot where he'd hit me. "I don't want to go, either. I'm glad we finally agree."

I stared at him in embarrassment, and then nodded. "I'm sorry," I muttered quietly, "that I'm not very expressive."

He shrugged and held out his hand to help me to my feet. "I won't say 'It's fine,' since it's not. You really need to express yourself more and say what you're really thinking, unless you want people to continue to misunderstand you, since you're so quiet and hold back so much. But I'm sure you'll improve with time," he replied airily as I took his hand and stood up, neatly folding my wings against my back. I felt as though my eyes had cleared slightly as I looked down at his bright face. He always seemed to know just what to say.

Suddenly feeling a bit curious, I had a small, wondering thought. I wasn't sure if I was going to like the answer I was going to get, but decided to ask, "If I had said I wanted to be alone, would you really have left?"

He scoffed slightly at my question and smirked, shaking his head. "No way. If you ever try to leave, I'll chase you all over the place."

I gave him a blank look, wondering if he was joking, but he looked serious. That was all I needed. "Stalker," I murmured under my breath and walked away from him, stretching out my black wings to either side. Without waiting for Dib to climb on, I jumped into the chilly, evening air and shot him a playful smile. "Well, have fun!"

"Hey!" he indignantly called up to me. "Where are you going?"

I glanced over at the multicolored horizon stretching out in front of me. Through the quickly failing light of Second Life's setting sun, I could see the rest of the boars finally returning from wherever it was they'd run to earlier. "I'm going to greet our little friends, who are currently stampeding toward us."

Dib turned in the direction I was facing, though I doubted he could see anything over the hills, and then gave me a terrified look. I flapped my wings a bit faster, rising further upward into the dark, starry sky to tease him.

"Al, come back!" he wailed, running over the grass after me.

"You forgot to say 'please'," I called down to him, lazily gliding through the air.

"PLE-E-E-EASE!"

Laughing to myself, I fell to the ground and waited for him to catch up. Dib nearly knocked me over in his hurry to scramble onto my back. "You're so mean!" he yelled in a childish tone, and pulled hard on my earring as he settled into his usual position. "Jerk!"

"I'm sorry," I said, not feeling sorry at all, and took off into the air again as I tried to stifle my continued laughter. I ignored his unceasing string of rants about how cruel I was, and flew toward the boars through the steadily blackening sky so we could train together a bit longer before we had to wake up.

A smile settled on my face as Dib wrapped his little arms around my neck and tightly hugged me from behind. "I promise I won't leave, so don't ever go anywhere, okay?" he pleaded quietly, but loud enough so I could hear him over the wind gusting past. He sounded worried, regardless of my assurances that I'd stay. It slowly dawned on me that perhaps I wasn't the only one who was afraid of being abandoned. After all, Dib had also been training by himself when I'd found him. Since then, he'd never mentioned having any other teammates before, aside from me. I felt secretly pleased with myself that perhaps I was his first.

"I'll never leave, either," I soothed as I twisted one arm around to briefly pat the top of his head. He grabbed my hand and held onto it with both of his as we soared far over the ground. "I promise."


	7. Office Panic

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

I stared morosely at the multitudes of the papers that were littering the top of my desk. All of the little letters sitting on the pages seemed to mock me with every word they formed.

There was never an end to things I had to read. Ever since I'd started working here right after my college graduation several years ago, I had often wondered if my father purposefully sent every single department's reports to me, though I was only in charge of one of the sections. But he never had seen me as being very useful, so I wasn't much surprised that checking reports was all he ever had me doing, aside from attending the occasional dinner with him, though he usually left me out of any social events. Not that I cared, since I was much more comfortable alone in my room than in some dining hall surrounded by strangers.

The hours crawled by in tormenting sluggishness, and I glanced at the large, ornate clock hanging on the otherwise blank, white wall for what seemed like the millionth time. The hands refused to move any faster, even with urgent mental prodding. It was only eleven o'clock in the morning, not even time for lunch yet, but I wanted nothing more than to go home and go to bed.

Quickly looking back at my papers, I frowned reprovingly. I'd told myself when I first bought Second Life that I wouldn't let the game get in the way of my real duties. This was more important. Anyway, I had to at least pretend to be dedicated to work. That way, my father would hopefully not notice my absent-mindedness due to wanting to play Second Life.

Still, I couldn't quite stop myself from thinking up new battle tactics for Dib and my training while I attempted to read the next report.

A soft knock on my office door made me jump slightly, and I quickly pretended to focus, but then realized that whoever it was outside couldn't see me. Clearing my throat, I sat up straighter and put on a blank expression. "Come in," I called after I'd used a moment to fix myself into the countenance of the company heir I was supposed to be. Sometimes it was difficult to turn off my Aeolus switch. I was starting to feel as though he was the real me, rather than myself as Zian in the real world. It was easier being him, whichever way it was.

The door inched open, and my father's secretary slipped through the gap. She neatly bowed at me. "Zian-xiānshēng, the president wishes to see you in his office."

Refraining from sighing in annoyance over the interruption, I immediately stood without another word and left the room. The woman followed a moment later, and I hurried toward the elevators, straightening my pale blue tie as I went.

I glanced to one side as I passed by the row of my employees' desks. Only one looked up at me and met my eyes. It was that man who had called me lively a month ago. He and I hadn't spoken since, unless we had to do so. Probably because I'd glared at him after his little outburst. I supposed I'd frightened him off, like everyone else who'd dared attempt to converse with me, regardless of the overhanging threat of my father.

But no matter. I had Dib to keep me company now, and didn't particularly care if yet another man at the office was scared of me as long as he continued to properly do his work.

A minute later, I found my self outside the unnecessarily large double-doors leading into my father's pointlessly huge office. Softly tapping my knuckles against the cold, black door, I shifted uneasily where I stood, hoping very much that he wasn't going to tell me he knew about my nightly activities. He hadn't called me to his office since that day two months ago when he'd spontaneously given me the day off.

I tried to force the fear off of my face as I heard him call me in, put a trembling hand on the doorknob, and slowly opened it. After closing the door behind myself, I stepped quietly up to his desk and inclined my head, staring hard at one of the smooth, gray floor tiles and attempting to keep myself from passing out in fright.

It took him several minutes to finally look up at me, but I stayed in my position. However, rather than saying anything, he proceeded to take a very lengthy drink of water. Anything to make me feel inferior for a little longer, I supposed.

Sighing softly, he leaned back in his chair and stared critically at me, his emotionless black eyes only glancing away for a second to set his empty glass down. "Zian, you are going to go on a four-day business trip to T City, to oversee the new contract," he firmly announced. "Choose three of your department's employees to go with you. You leave tonight at seven o'clock. Transportation and rooms at a hotel have already been arranged. Here is the information." He slid a thick, red folder across the top of his desk, and I quickly took it.

"Yes, father," I said quietly as he returned to his work without another glance. As I hastily left his office, I felt overwhelmingly relieved that he apparently hadn't noticed anything, but I wondered if I would be able to smuggle my Second Life helmet along with me on the trip. Four days wasn't terribly lengthy, but I still felt as though I'd very much miss playing in that time.

However, even more pressing than Second Life was the wondering thought as to why my father was sending me, instead of going himself, as he always had. After having banished me to my office for so long, it was somewhat strange. Well, I was supposed to inherit the company someday, even if he thought I was completely incapable of doing anything but read reports, so going on trips for experience was really a positive thing.

Pausing as I finally reached my own department again, I ran my eyes over my diligently working employees. Which unfortunate three should I take with me? It was hardly considerate of me to tell them I was bringing them along when they only had that afternoon to prepare to leave tonight, but it had to be done.

I quickly stepped over to stand between two of the desks and stared down at their owners, typing away on computers. "Zhang Biyu, Wu Li Qin," I called, looking at each of the very professional-looking women in turn. They'd done quite a bit of praise-worthy work as of late, they seemed suitable.

They immediately stood up like their chairs had just been set on fire, and turned in my direction. "Zian-xiānshēng?"

"Finish what you are working on, and then go home. Pack for a four-day business trip to T City. You will be picked up at your homes at seven tonight, and taken to the airport."

They both looked slightly overwhelmed at the sudden order, but nodded and said, "Yes, Zian-xiānshēng," before quickly sitting back down and returning to their work.

I turned away and looked over the rest of them, wondering who else to pick. My attention landed on the man that at some point I'd dubbed You're-Looking-So-Lively. He was a bit forward, but a very hard worker nonetheless, so I walked over to his tidy desk.

"Shi Heng. You are coming, too. Finish what you are working on, and go home to pack. You will be picked up at seven," I ordered, talking as fast as I could before he had a chance to stand up. I turned away as he looked up at me somewhat fearfully, and I hurried back into my office, firmly shutting the door behind myself.

Sitting behind my desk again, I stared down at the red folder and my papers for a moment, picking up my thin fountain pen. But before I could open the folder to read about the contract, it suddenly hit me what was about to happen; I was leaving tonight. There was probably going to be a car waiting for me outside directly after work to take me to the airport, with my bags already packed by some maid or another.

Bags sans Second Life gaming device.

There was no way to tell Dib that I wasn't going to be playing for a few days. I'd skipped nights before for one reason or another, but never without telling him first. For all I knew, the impulsive boy would jump off a cliff and attempt to lasso a dragon to fight with while I was gone. He'd mentioned that particular scenario to me before, and I didn't doubt he would try it out of boredom if I failed to log in. He would definitely die in a heartbeat if I wasn't there to protect him from monsters and from his own brainless ideas.

And only earlier that morning in-game, I'd told him I'd never leave, and now here I was leaving him for four whole days. What if he thought I'd lied about wanting to be his friend and was now hiding from him? What if he got lost wandering around searching for me? What if he found someone else to be friends with? What if–

My mouth dropped open in horror. This was terrible.

I nearly ran out of my office to hurry home and explain to him what was going on, though I doubted he would be online at such an early hour, since he had work, too. But I held myself back and tried to beat down my panic.

Taking several deep, controlled breaths, I mentally kicked myself for being so silly. What in the world was the matter with me? Those thoughts were ridiculous. Some of them, anyway. I was pretty sure Dib would indeed go try to find a dragon and then get killed, but the thought of him dropping me for someone else was plain insulting. I knew he would never do that. How could I think such a horrible thing about him?

Anyway, it was only a four-day-long trip. It wasn't like I was leaving for an entire year. Why was I getting so panicky?

Twirling my pen around in my hand nervously, I hoped Dib wouldn't be too angry with me when I saw him next. He was also an adult, though I sometimes forgot because of how he looked and acted. I hoped he would understand the situation.

I sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. Having a real friend was more bothersome than I'd thought it would be. None of my other 'friends' were so much trouble. In fact, they were just the opposite, acting so concerned over my comfort while they didn't actually care about me, but rather were concerned with the well-being of their job, or something of that sort, not that they had ever come right out and said such things, of course. The only reason I'd spent time with them in the first place was because my father had forced me to do so, since many of them were also sons and daughters of important business heads.

It wasn't until after I'd met Dib that I realized how false those people were. He was everything they weren't; loud-mouthed, messy, obnoxious, childish, but also warm and caring, and one of the most considerate people I'd ever known. And even though the whole secret-friendship thing was wearing on me, I was positive I wouldn't change anything if I had the choice. Worrying about the other person came with the territory, I supposed. I just had to focus on my work, so I didn't lose that friend getting caught through my own mistakes.

"Lively" was starting to become an understatement, I realized with a huff, and slowly went back to work, flipping open the thick folder at last.

Nearly twelve hours later, I was walking across the excessively decorated lobby of the hotel my father had arranged. I hurried to the counter and refrained from leaning against it in my weariness as I checked the four of us in.

When I was handed the room keys, I was vaguely surprised to find my father had only booked two rooms. I'd thought for sure he'd booked three in his bizarre determination to keep me above my subordinates. Not that I cared very much if I shared with You're-Looking-So-Lively. Now that I had no chance at playing Second Life during my short stay in T City, I had nothing to hide.

Stepping into the large elevator along with the others, I stood in the corner and watched the little floor numbers light up in turn, thinking it would probably be best if I stopped mentally calling Heng "You're-Looking-So-Lively". After all, it would become a habit if I kept it up, and it would be very bad if it slipped out by accident while I was talking to him. I didn't particularly want to know how he would react if he discovered I'd given him some weird nickname.

As we reached our floor, I handed one of the keys to the two women who'd come with me, and then slipped the second key into my room's lock. The door easily swung open on well-oiled hinges, and I hurried inside. Heng and the hotel employees carrying our luggage followed along behind.

I made sure my bags were put where I wanted them in the bedroom, and then went back to the main sitting room and slipped off my coat, neatly folding it on a chair next to the wide window overlooking the city. I gazed outside, staring at all the little lights of the other building windows shining in the darkness, and wondered what Dib was doing. I hoped he wasn't getting eaten by something.

Letting loose a small sigh, I turned back around. Heng was quietly standing to one side, looking awkward as he fiddled with the little buttons on the left sleeve of his white dress shirt.

When he didn't say anything, I sat down on top of my coat and began removing my shoes. After they were off, I stood up again. Heng was still in the same spot, staring at me.

"Would you like to take a shower first, or shall I?" I asked, wishing he would go away, or at least stop looking at me. It was very annoying, being constantly watched with such focus for no apparent reason.

He backed up a few steps and waved a hand behind himself into the bedroom, toward the bathroom door inside. "Please, Zian-xiānshēng. Go ahead of me," he offered quietly, smiling at me for the first time since the Lively Incident. My eyes widened as I looked at him. That expression was oddly familiar.

After a moment, I faintly nodded and walked past him. A long sigh came from the sitting room as I went to shut the bathroom door. I felt slightly hurt at how alleviated he seemed to be that I wasn't in there anymore. Was I really so terrifying to be around that he had to make such relieved noises when he thought I couldn't hear him? All I did was glare at him, and that was months ago.

I quickly undressed and threw my clothing into a basket on the floor with quite a bit more force than was necessary, wishing that I'd simply booked a third room myself. Nearly an hour later, I was reluctantly opening the bathroom door, not really wanting to go back to where Heng was, but neither did I want to stay in the bathroom any longer. I wanted to go home.

Slowly stepping into the main room, I tightened the fluffy towel around my waist and glanced toward the dining table. There he was.

Heng smiled at me again as I walked toward him. I sat down in the chair across from him and stared down at the large dish of assorted fruits that hadn't been there before. "Thank you," I said, and then looked up at Heng, continuing, "for letting me use the shower first."

"You're welcome, Zian-xiānshēng," he replied brightly, and then gestured one of his large hands toward the fruit. "I ordered room service, I hope you don't mind. I wasn't sure what you would prefer, so I asked for a variety. But we could get something else, if you'd like."

"No, thank you. This is fine," I assured quietly and slowly took a shiny red apple off the top of the pyramid-shaped stack. Heng sure seemed to be in a good mood all of the sudden. I wished it would rub off onto me. Perhaps I was going to feel better in the morning, but at the moment, I was feeling thoroughly miserable on that business trip I didn't want to be on, stuck in a room with the recently-discovered-to-be-awkward-to-be-around You're-Loo… Heng. At least there was fruit.

Twisting off the stem of the apple, I set it to one side and gingerly picked up the small knife that was sticking out of the fruit bowl. Carefully cutting the apple into even eighths, I glanced up at Heng. He was staring at me again, with a hesitant expression seeming to be slipping back into fear as he looked me over. I set the knife down and separated the slices from one another, feeling extremely uncomfortable under his relentless gaze.

"Please, stop looking at me."

His round eyes widened as if he only just realized what he'd been doing, and he immediately looked downward instead. "I'm sorry."

Picking up two white napkins from the stack placed beside the fruit bowl, I neatly arranged four of the apple slices on each and slid one of the napkins in Heng's direction. He abruptly looked back up at me in surprise as if he would never have imagined that I would share my apple with him. Part of me wished he would ignore the apple and go take a shower instead so I'd be alone.

"Thank you, Zian-xiānshēng," he said, the warm smile back as he shifted the napkin closer to himself and picked up one of the slices.

"You are welcome." As I began to eat, I ventured another tiny glance at him, wondering why he was being so forcefully friendly with me all the sudden when he kept periodically acting scared. Especially before tonight, he'd always seemed so terrified whenever I looked at him. Then again, so did everyone else. But perhaps the reason his reactions alone stuck in my mind was because he was the only one who dared to look back at me. Often he didn't even bother knocking on my office door before bursting inside for whatever reason.

Slowly chewing the sweet fruit, I tried to think of something to say to break the silence. I knew Dib would probably be proud of me for attempting to start a conversation with someone. That was probably the only reason I was bothering.

"You may leave off the 'xiānshēng' from my name. At least, when no one else is around," I muttered at last after I swallowed my mouthful of apple. Not a very interesting topic, but it was the only thing that came to mind.

He paused with an apple slice half-way to his mouth, and looked at me curiously. "What should I call you?" he asked after a moment's silence.

"Just Zian is fine," I continued. Somehow, it sounded strange when he spoke to me so formally.

Heng nodded and smiled widely at me as he popped his final apple slice into his mouth. "Okay, Zian it is."

I frowned inwardly, staring down at my now-apple-free napkin. That didn't sound right, either, though it was better than having titles tacked onto my name all of the time. But I tried to ignore it, since I was probably just tired from getting forced on spontaneous business trips, and riding around in cars and airplanes for hours on end.

Abruptly deciding I didn't want to try to talk to Heng anymore, I crumpled up my napkin and stood, gripping my towel so it didn't fall off. Quickly walking to the bedroom door, I threw the napkin into the waste basket on the floor and glanced over my shoulder. "Goodnight."

"'Night," Heng returned, folding up his own napkin and standing with a faintly amused expression. Pausing a few steps just inside the bedroom, I silently watched as Heng went into the bathroom. I thought I'd heard him chuckle slightly before he shut the door. He was weird.

I hurriedly dressed in my pajamas when I heard him turn the water on, and then I slipped into one of the two beds, safely burying myself under the blankets and curling up. Running my finger along the soft fabric covering me, I immediately began to feel bored. Usually at this time, I'd be logging into Second Life, if I hadn't already. It was like I'd reverted back to my pre-gaming life when I never had anything interesting to do. And I missed Dib, though I knew it was only for a little while that I wouldn't be able to see him. Hopefully he was okay, even without me being there.

Resolutely closing my eyes, I tried ignore my loneliness and go to sleep.


	8. Nightmares

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

_"Zian."_

I looked up from my paper and glanced around, searching for the source of the deep voice. No one was in the room with me. Feeling slightly confused, I decided to ignore it, and looked down again. Didn't people know how much I hated being interrupted while I was working? They could at least knock and tell me what they wanted, rather then yelling at me from the hallway, or wherever they were.

_"Zian!"_

My eyes widened slightly at the second call, which had been much louder than the first, and I hastily stood up, pushing back my desk chair. That was my father's voice calling me. Why was he on this floor? He never came to my department. He always called me to his office instead.

I ran to my office door and flung it open. There was no one in the dark room outside.

_"Father?"_ I said quietly, walking into the stiflingly silent area where my employees usually sat. All of the desks were oddly empty and lifeless, very much unlike how they usually were every day, with their ever-changing clutter on top, and bustling occupants seated on the small, wheeled chairs.

Not seeing my father in there, I hurried to the elevator and went up to his floor. As the metallic doors noiselessly slid open, I hesitantly went to his office door. It was so tall.

I craned my neck back to briefly look up at it, and then knocked. The hollow echoes sounded unusually loud in the silence of the deserted building. I waited a moment for an answer that didn't come, and then placed my hand on the smooth doorknob, flinching slightly as I touched the cold surface. It felt like ice under my fingers as I turned it and slowly opened the door.

_"Father?"_ I called again, almost whispering as I cautiously inched into the dimly lit room. The only light was coming from the moon shining through the large windows behind his desk. It was giving everything an eerie glow as I stopped in the middle of the room and glanced over my shoulder at the door while it shut behind me. My breathing started to speed up as nervousness rose in my chest. Where was he?

_"Zian."_

I fearfully turned to my left on reflex as the voice, sounding much, much louder now, boomed out by the wall of the large office. My father was standing in the shadows beside the decoratively carved stone fireplace, arms firmly crossed over his gray suit and a blank expression on his lined face, though his black eyes were flickering with anger.

I took a very unwilling step closer to him, feeling as though I was being diminished under his furious stare. Bowing to him shortly, I looked up at him towering over me. His face looked so far away, yet I could see it clearly in the darkness.

_"Yes, father?"_

He gave a sigh and his scraggly eyebrows lowered. _"Why are you so worthless, Zian?"_ he mused quietly, not as a question, but more of a statement. Turning slightly, he looked away from me. _"I do so much for you, yet you do nothing but disappoint me over and over."_

_"I-I am sorry, father,"_ I said hurriedly, not really knowing just what it was I was apologizing for. At the moment, I could think of quite a few things.

_"SHUT UP!"_ he roared, slapping me across the face. I fell to the floor and slid a few feet away on the smooth tiles. The familiar taste of blood filled my mouth as the inside of my cheek started to bleed. Shakily taking a breath, I sat up.

He stepped over to where I'd come to a stop, and glared down at me. _"Did you think I would not notice?"_ he snapped, grabbing the front of my suit and dragging me to my feet. _"Stand up, you idiot."_

I simply stared at him, wide-eyed and terrified.

He roughly let go of my clothes, leaving them very rumpled, and leaned toward me. _"Why did you do it?"_

_"What_–_"_

_"Do not feign ignorance,"_ he ordered coldly. I shivered as the temperature of the room seemed to drop, and he continued to stare me down. I'd seen that look countless times, yet I'd never gotten used to it.

_"Are you trying to escape from me like your brother?"_ he scoffed.

_"No_–_"_

He suddenly laughed humorlessly, stopping my answer. _"Of course you are not. As if_ you _could manage something like that. But really, trying to get away through _this_?"_ he asked quietly, holding up my Second Life helmet.

My mouth dropped open, and I started shaking my head in denial. How had he found that? I'd hidden it away where I'd thought no one would be able to find. After all, the maids cleaned my room and office at home daily. Hiding the helmet was necessary.

He was still for a moment, but he then easily snapped the helmet in half in his hands. I watched as the countless broken pieces fell to the floor with deafening crashes. The sound of my hopes breaking apart. The sound of my freedom being destroyed.

Another laugh came from his chest, and he took a few steps away from me. I looked back up and he smirked at my reaction. _"One distraction taken care of,"_ he said calmly, and then stepped to one side, coming to a halt beside the now-lit fireplace. _"Now there is just this one to eliminate."_

My eyes automatically dropped to the flickering hearth, and I suddenly felt as though there was no air in the room. Dib was there, tied up and laying on the floor, looking as though he'd been severely beaten.

His eyes fluttered open and he looked at me pleadingly. His mouth opened slightly, but rather than saying something, his face twisted with pain and he coughed. A thin trail of blood dripped out of the corner of his mouth. His eyes widened in fear as my father stepped toward him and sharply kicked his chest. Crying out, Dib flew several feet and landed heavily on the floor.

_"Stop,"_ I whispered in horror as I watched, unable to move, as my father continued to beat Dib. Dib's agonized screams were ringing in my ears, but I couldn't do anything to stop them. I struggled to get myself to him. My body wouldn't move. My eyes wouldn't close. I couldn't stop watching the terrifying scene playing out before me.

_"Stop,"_ I gasped, managing to take a small step forward. My father didn't seem to notice, and continued to hit Dib, blood dripping off his fist from the numerous fresh injuries on the boy's mangled face. _"Stop,"_ I repeated, slightly louder as I got more air into my lungs.

_"Al,"_ Dib called weakly, stretching out his tiny hand toward me for help. My father ground Dib's fingers under the heel of his shoe.

_"STOP!"_ I yelled as Dib's screams of pain ripped through the air. I frantically ran forward at last, reaching for Dib's crushed hand.

_"Al!"_

"STOP IT!"

"AL, WAKE UP!"

My eyes flew open at last, but the roaring in my ears didn't stop for several seconds. I was drenched in sweat, and breathing heavily as if I'd just run several miles. Blinking a few times, Heng's face came into focus, closely hovering over me with a terrified expression. He put a shaky hand on my shoulder and pressed me back onto the damp pillow.

"Are you okay?" he asked hesitantly.

Lifting a hand, I drew it across my face, wiping off my tears and sweat as I tried to calm myself down. The clear images of my father torturing Dib wouldn't go away. I could still hear the screams and sickening sounds of his bones being crushed underfoot.

I gave a ragged breath and closed my eyes, rolling myself to one side in an attempt to get away from Heng. He withdrew his hand, but stayed beside me. Shivering slightly as I pushed the sweaty blankets off myself, I sat up and stared for a long moment at my trembling fingers. Natural sleep didn't seem to agree with me anymore. Especially now that I was constantly paranoid that my father would discover my Second Life game. Not that he would attack Dib if he found out. Break my helmet and slap me around, definitely, but I highly doubted he would get violent with someone else.

Still, that knowledge didn't stop flashes of my nightmare from running through my head.

"Zian, are you okay?" Heng repeated quietly, concern filling his voice as he gently set a hand on my shaking back, shifting himself closer to me.

I briefly glanced at him, and then looked away, feeling somewhat humiliated that he'd seen me in such a state. "I am fine," I finally said, sounding thoroughly unconvincing as I failed to control the quavering in my voice. "It was just a… just a nightmare." What little breath I had caught in my throat and I looked back at him in bewilderment. "What did you just call me?"

He, paused for a moment and looked confused, but then raised an eyebrow. "Zian."

"No." I shook my head. "Before that."

"Zian-xiānshēng…" he added with a shrug, looking at me like I was crazy for not remembering such a recent thing.

I glared at him, but resisted the urge to push him off the edge of my bed. Now that he was so close, I ran my eyes over his angular face and attempted to picture what he would look like as a foreign-looking child. In my sleepiness it was somewhat difficult, but he did look similar, once I tried. The rounded shape of his dark eyes, his long lashes, the way he'd smiled at me last night, his light, playful tone when he wasn't speaking so formally…

"What?" he asked somewhat uncomfortably after enduring a moment of my staring.

My eyes narrowed and I raised a hand, leaning toward him. He flinched as if he expected me to hit him, but I put my hand on the top of his head and experimentally ruffled his hair around. Heng's wavy black hair felt a bit different from Dib's gold curls as I ran my fingers through the soft strands, but it also felt so natural.

"Dib?" I questioned in extreme perplexity. My hand didn't seem to want to stop patting him.

He looked at me blankly for a very long moment until I took my hand back, starting to become embarrassed and wondering if I'd been wrong, but then a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "You finally noticed? Took you long enough, Al," he teased, sounding as though he was trying to keep himself from laughing.

Feeling extremely angry all of the sudden, I ignored my previous hesitation and roughly shoved him off my bed. He landed harmlessly on the carpeted floor, and laughed up at me as I scrambled awkwardly out of my blankets. My face flushed with renewed humiliation. Without a backward glance, I stomped away and went into the bathroom, locking the door behind myself.

"Al," Heng called, still chuckling slightly as he knocked on the door. "Al, come back. I'm sorry for not telling you."

"Go away!" I furiously snapped, feeling as though I'd just wasted a lifetime's worth of worry on the stupid man. I'd even had a horrific nightmare about him, and he wasn't even getting eaten by a dragon like I'd been assuming. Not that I particularly wanted that to happen to him, but really.

He and I had been friends for over a month now, and not once had he let on that he knew me in real life. He'd let me go on living out each wretched day alone, while he'd been sitting right outside my office the entire time.

"Please, come back," he repeated, no longer laughing.

I ignored his calls and instead went to the shower, messily dropping my clothing on the floor along the way. Quickly turning on the water, I drowned out his voice and stepped inside. My mind was reeling as I stared hard at the tiled wall under the shower head, and let the nearly-scalding water continue to spray out. I didn't feel it very much, anyway. I was more focused on trying to decide if I wanted to be happy, or angry, or surprised, or confused, or relieved, or a million other things.

After washing the sweat off, I reluctantly stepped out of the steaming shower and dried myself. I took my time picking up my abandoned clothing, and put it in the basket before walking to the door. It was quiet on the other side, and I wondered if Heng had gone somewhere else like I'd told him to do.

Slowly opening the door, I peeked through the crack, and abruptly slammed it shut again. He was sitting on the floor right outside, leaning against the side of my bed. My eyes widened and I gasped in surprise as the door suddenly opened from the outside, nearly smacking my face.

Heng forced himself through the gap before I could try to close it. "Thanks for letting me in," he huffed in annoyance as I glared at him. "Sheesh. You're even meaner in real life."

I stepped past him and left the bathroom. "Look who's talking," I snarled in return, dropping all of the suffocating pretenses I'd been clinging to since yesterday morning. Heng walked up behind me as I began hastily rummaging around in my luggage for another pair of pajamas. I stopped after I glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand, and stood up with a pair of boxers in hand. It was almost five in the morning, and hardly worth trying to go back to sleep now. Anyway, I didn't really want to go back to laying in my sweaty bed.

I quickly pulled on the underwear, and threw the bath towel I had covering myself onto my bed.

"I said I was sorry," Heng muttered quietly. I shot him a wordless, miserable stare, and then hurried over to where my suit was hanging on the coat rack in the corner. He sighed and sat on his bed as I put on my suit as fast as I could manage. "Would you just listen to me?"

Pausing, I pulled on my jacket, slowly turned around as I did up the buttons, and silently stared at him before reluctantly going to sit on the edge of my own bed. Looking away from his relieved expression, I leaned forward and ran my hand through my damp hair for a moment, and then glanced up at him, eyes questioningly darting between his.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked softly, fighting back the rising desire to beat him to a pulp and cry my eyes out at the same time.

"Because," he said, waving his hand about in a helpless way and frowning. "You're so damn distant all the time. I didn't… I didn't want to force myself into your life if you didn't want me there." He clasped his hands together and stared down at the floor. "Every time I thought you were finally opening up to me, it was that much harder to put up with the next time you acted apathetic."

A long silence stretched out, and he finally looked up again. "I really was going to tell you, now that… After what you said yesterday, I thought maybe… Well, it never seemed like a good time to bring it up."

"You could have told me last night," I mumbled. "There were plenty of chances."

"I know," he agreed. "I'm sorry."

I breathed deeply for a moment and then nodded. "I'm sorry, too." I wondered how Heng managed to be so patient with me all the time. I felt like a complete idiot for being so hopelessly dense to things outside myself. Though, sometimes I wasn't even clear on things in my own head, much less the mind of someone else.

Heng sighed and stood up. "Seems like we don't do anything but fight," he observed with a smirk as he slipped off his white t-shirt and threw it onto his messy bed.

With a slight shrug, I slowly rose to my feet, fixing the messy knot I'd made in my tie. "Well, we also _eat_ sometimes–"

"I do, anyway," he cut in as he stepped over to his luggage and pulled out a new set of clothes. I stared at his broad, muscular back for a moment, feeling somewhat annoyed at how huge he was in comparison to Dib. And in comparison to me, for that matter. It was like I'd been cheated in some way.

"And we kill things," I finally continued, attempting to push his irritatingly enormous muscles out of mind, but then paused and smiled before echoing, "I do, anyway."

He gave me an indignant look over his shoulder and then turned back around to reach inside his luggage again. "Excuse me, but I killed three boars yesterday. Three!" he repeated, holding up three fingers, as if I hadn't heard him the first time and needed further clarification.

"The third one we attacked doesn't count," I corrected, walking past him and lightly slapping the back of his head on my way by. "You ran away before it was dead, and I had to finish it off for you."

Heng abruptly stood up, clutching a pair of dress pants in his hand, and he glared at me as I paused in the doorway. "That's because it started to get up! A-and it was one of the bigger ones, anyway! It breathed fire at me and I almost got roasted!"

I smiled at him in bemusement and then walked into the sitting room with a wave of my hand. "Whatever you say, Dib."

Flicking on the light switch, I strode to the armchair by the large window and picked up my coat from where I'd left it last night, quickly pulling it on. Lowering myself into the chair, I stared outside, not that I could see much of anything with as dark as it still was.

Sighing tiredly and wishing I'd gotten a couple more hours of sleep, I put my shoes on and stood up again, relocating myself beside the dining table where I'd left the thick, red folder my father gave me yesterday morning.

Heng walked up behind me when I opened the folder, and silently watched as I removed some of the stapled-together papers. I held up one of the packets, waving it at him. "Information on what we're doing later," I explained.

"Oh, fun," he grumbled, yawning and taking the papers from me while he leaned heavily against my back, not bothering to read through the packet just yet. I gently elbowed him in a want to make him stop squashing me. Though I let Dib sit on my shoulders all of the time without a complaint, I felt uncomfortable with Heng being so close. They may have been the same person, but it was going to take time for me to get used to all of this, and a part of my mind still saw Heng as one of my employees.

A very tall employee.

"Dib, get off of me, you're heavy," I said, elbowing him harder when he didn't move. I closed the folder, three more stacks of stapled papers in-hand—one for me, and one for each of the women who'd come with us to T City, but I'd let them sleep for a while longer, and would perhaps instead go find the hotel restaurant, or order more room service. Heng would definitely be wanting food soon, or I wouldn't even be bothering with breakfast.

"Al?" Heng quietly called, prodding the back of my neck with a cold finger until I slapped his hand away in annoyance.

"What is it?" I answered, attempting to decide if I was hungry or not as I rubbed the spot he'd been poking.

"Are you still mad at me for not telling you?" he hastily asked, and I turned around to look at him in surprise. It was bizarre hearing such a child-like, Dib-ish tone used with Heng's deep voice.

Smiling, I shook my head and brushed a hand over his shoulder before picking up the room key from off of the tabletop and and walking toward the door. "No, I'm not mad at you. Not very much, anyway." I was still a little bit angry, naturally, but I definitely wasn't going to hold it against him, or anything. He'd apologized several times, after all.

"Really? You're not?" he pressed, following closely after and looking very anxious.

"I'm really not," I said as I opened the door and stepped out into the deserted hallway.

"Are you sure?" he continued relentlessly, tugging on my sleeve.

"Yes, I'm sure," I whispered in irritation, slipping the room key into my pocket and glaring at him as I slapped his chest with the work papers. "But if you keep that up, I'm going to be mad at you for a whole other reason! Stop being so annoying, and take where we are into consideration!"

"But I have to be annoying to get all the annoyingness out of my system before we go… wherever it is we're going. Where are we going, anyway?" he curiously asked, following me into the elevator and watching as I pushed the lobby button.

"Downstairs to get breakfast, of course," I answered, leaning against the wall and crossing my arms. "I would have gotten room service, but walking around will help me wake up."

"Oh, I see. Well, as I was saying," he began again, sounding very serious, "I have to get all of the 'annoy Al' urges out of me before we get to the restaurant, since people can see us in there and I won't be able to bother you again until we go back to our room!"

I glanced at him in disbelief, and he frowned. "Oh, come on. I've been stifling Dib all night. I've gotta let him loose at some point, right? You're letting out Al, it's only fair that I get to let out Dib for a little while!"

"Okay, fine," I snapped, turning to face the door. "But once we leave this elevator, you're my employee and I'm your boss. So don't act so–"

"I know, I know," he grumbled. "I won't blow our cover, don't worry, _Zian-xiānshēng_. Geeze."

Nodding in relief, I took a slow, deep breath and forced my face to harden into the usual calm blankness as the floor number slipped closer to the lobby. Straightening my posture, I brushed my hair into order with one hand, tightly gripped those paper packets with the other, and proceeded to gaze unblinkingly at the door.

Heng's eyebrows lowered as he continued to stare at me in the reflective metal of the elevator doors. "It's so weird seeing you switch personalities like that," he muttered.

"Shut up, Dib," I ordered under my breath as the elevator let out a sharp "ding" and the door slid open, revealing the nearly-empty lobby. Completely dousing Aeolus, I quickly strode across the lobby and walked into the small restaurant, already wishing Heng and I were back upstairs so I could relax.

This business trip couldn't go by fast enough.


	9. Going Home

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

The day was sunny, the air was warm, the contract over-seeing, during which I oh-so-helpfully stood in the corner and watched it get signed and closed, went smoothly, and I finally had some time to rest. Not that I'd done anything that made me particularly need a rest. But it was nice, regardless.

I'd told the two women I'd pointlessly forced to come with me that they could do as they pleased; go home or wander about T City. Whatever they felt like doing. We had the rest of the last day of the trip to waste, so they might as well waste it doing something they wanted. I supposed that they were simply relieved to get away from me, their boss, at last.

As for Heng and I, we decided to explore the city for a little while, and then return home a bit early. After all, Second Life was waiting for us there, and I thought perhaps I was going through flying withdrawal. The air there on the ground felt oddly stuffy, and I kept catching myself straining my shoulder muscles as if I could whip out a pair of wings and fly off whenever a particularly large group of people came down the sidewalk toward us.

When Heng and I had left the hotel, I hadn't been very pleased to discover that, even though it was early Thursday afternoon, there were still many people of the younger persuasion wandering around the streets, looking thoroughly relaxed. I knew there was a university somewhere nearby which I assumed most of them attended, if not all, but really.

I couldn't remember ever being so leisurely during my university years. If anything, each day was impossibly packed with studying and lectures, leaving me barely any time to sleep or eat. I probably would have died from starvation if my father's hired servants hadn't reminded me to eat regularly. Not that I'd listened to them, sometimes.

My days had been horrendously busy, yet here were many older teens and young adults lazing about as if they didn't have a care in the world. But I tried to ignore them, since the weather was nice, and I was in a bit of a good mood for once seeing as how I could finally relax to a certain extent now that Heng and I were away from the people who might cause trouble if they saw us acting friendly with one another.

It probably would have been easier for me to ignore the passerby if many of them hadn't waved animatedly at me as we passed each other. Or complimented me on my haircut, not that I had gotten one recently. Or asked me why I was there, to which I didn't respond, since I had no idea what they were talking about. It was like getting approached by that dark elf at the Star City restaurant, only exponentially worse.

Heng's little amused smiles and stifled laughs every time it happened weren't helping, either. He seemed to think the whole thing was a colossal joke, though I was getting increasingly uncomfortable. Walking directly behind him seemed to block me from view a little, but people still managed to spot me in one way or another.

"Dib," I grumbled in annoyance after someone else greeted me. I held myself back from glaring at the person as they left. "Hurry up and pick a coffee shop, so we can drink the coffee, so we can leave, so we can go to the airport, so we can fly home."

"But this is fun," Heng snickered, waving at someone for me. I wished very much that he would stop encouraging them. Though I didn't suppose they would stop, even if he and I attempted to pretend like they didn't exist.

"I didn't know you were so popular around here," he commented with infinite entertainment, and then grabbed my arm, dragging me to the edge of the the crowded sidewalk and pointing at something with his other hand. "Let's go in that one."

"I've never even been here before," I denied as I tried to keep up with him while he hurried us across the busy road. I wished that we'd just flown home and gotten coffee there, rather than here in the stare-fest. There was very little that I wanted less than being the center of attention. All of the people were making me feel self-conscious as if I had something on my face and didn't know it. But numerous checks at my reflection in the windows of the places we'd passed told me that my suit and I were still neat and tidy, exactly as they had been earlier in the hotel room that morning.

We slowly walked past the large front window of the coffee shop Heng had been aiming for, and I turned my head to take a quick look inside out of curiosity, and out of a want to see how crowded it was. My eyes widened in horror, and I wished I hadn't looked. Or perhaps I was extremely relieved that I had. Either way, I definitely didn't want to go inside anymore.

Five student-looking people were sitting right inside the window, staring at me as Heng and I passed by. Three waved energetically, one smiled in a twitchy way, and the last…

"Dib," I gasped hurriedly, putting my hands on Heng's back and pushing him away from the entrance. "I don't want to go here, let's pick a different one."

"What? Quit shoving," he said indignantly, looking over his shoulder at me as the door handle slipped out of his fingers. He stumbled a few steps away from the door and planted himself firmly on the sidewalk, refusing to go any further until I explained myself. "Why not this one?"

"That guy is in there!" I explained in a whisper as if the man inside could hear me, regardless of the other people talking around us, and the fact that there was an entire wall between us that would let very little sound through.

"What guy?" he asked, trying to look back over my head. "Where? Geeze, Al! Quit pushing me already yet!"

"That dark elf from Star City, the one who wanted to know my name! He's glaring at me again!" I snapped, pushing him as hard as I could, though he still wasn't going anywhere. Why did he have to be so damned strong, even in real life?

Heng's eyes widened and he stepped to one side with a suddenly serious expression. I nearly fell over, since I'd been leaning on him, but he grabbed my arm, pulled me upright, and proceeded to drag me back toward the window.

I hurriedly shook myself out of his grip and he walked over by himself. "Oh, you're right. What a coincidence," he remarked after a long moment of staring inside. He suddenly started waving at them, smiling brightly. "One of his teammates, too, it looks like. That guy that had the fan."

"Dib, come back here!" I hissed, pressing myself against the wall of the coffee shop to get out of the flow of people. "Please, let's go somewhere else!" I could clearly imagine what those sitting inside were thinking, suddenly being waved at by a random man on the street—people had been doing it to me all morning. Though if I was too self-conscious, Heng was anything but. He would probably be able to dance down the middle of a busy road, singing at the top of his lungs, and he wouldn't get embarrassed.

With a small sigh, Heng obediently returned to my side and frowned slightly as he looked down at me and crossed his arms over his gray suit jacket. "It's not like he's going to murder you, you know."

"I know," I agreed uneasily, not really believing that he wouldn't as I inched away from the entrance, anyway. There were plenty more cafés around the area, I couldn't understand why Heng was so hell-bent on going in this particular one. Especially since that intimidating person was inside, looking like he would try to stab me to death with his coffee cup's little spoon if I got within arm's reach of him.

Heng sighed again and nodded with a roll of his eyes. "Okay, fine. Let's find somewhere else if you're that reluctant."

"Thanks, Dib." I smiled with relief and gratefully patted his sleeve as we walked away from the shop, feeling much better now that I didn't have to go in there and get glared at while attempting to drink coffee.

Glancing down at me briefly, he looked back up with a resigned expression and began searching for somewhere new to go. "You're never going to make more friends with an evasive attitude like that," he scolded quietly after a moment. "If we'd just asked him what his problem was, I'm sure everything would have been cleared up in no time, and we could have had a nice cup of coffee together."

I shrugged slightly at his words. "I don't care if it gets cleared up or not. It's his own business if he wants to hate me for no reason." I ignored Heng's look of pity at my apathetic attitude as we crossed the street again. Perhaps it would have been better to listen to the man's explanation as to why he seemed so angry with me, but even if Heng thought I should get more friends, I didn't particularly want to be friends with someone like that. Misunderstanding or not, he was very rude.

Staring down at the ground as we walked up onto the curb, I continued, "Anyway, I've got you now."

Heng was quiet for a very long time as we walked down the sidewalk. That was bizarre. Heng never had nothing to say. Where was the purposefully annoying back slapping and loud cheering that he was happy to be my friend, too? Maybe he was angry that I wasn't attempting to improve my nonexistent social skills. I was just telling the truth. He was the one who said I should express myself more.

Feeling slightly worried at his silence, I glanced up at him and halted in surprise to see that his face was bright red and he had a hand over his mouth. He looked like he was choking on something, though he hadn't been eating anything.

"Are you okay?" I asked, feeling extremely concerned at his wide-eyed expression. Forcefully turning him around to face me, I looked up at him. It seemed like he didn't want to look at me, however, and his eyes wildly darted about as he stared at things over my head. I yanked his hand off his mouth and frowned at him. He was smiling, not at all angry—or choking, for that matter—like I thought he might have been.

"What's wrong with you?"

Heng finally gave me a brief glance, but immediately looked away again, smiling even wider. "Geeze, Al."

"What?" I asked again, feeling extremely confused at his behavior. What was there to get all worked up over? Of all the times we reaffirmed our friendship, he'd never acted like that. It was similar to how he looked when I first met him and agreed to become teammates, though at the time, I'd thought he was just a hyperactive kid. But this situation was completely different.

"Nothing," Heng replied with a deep laugh, and waved one of his large hands at me as he slowly started down the sidewalk again. He rubbed his still-red cheeks for a moment and glanced at me out of the corner of his eye before shaking his head and repeating, "Just nothing. You're so… Geeze…!"

The whole time we were walking, and drinking coffee at last, and even on the plane ride home he refused to tell me what was going on. He did look extremely happy about something, however, so I tried to brush off his reluctance to say whatever it was he was thinking about.

Still, he was being hypocritical. He was always telling me to be more open and honest when he himself was holding things back. Not that I was expecting him to tell me every single little detail of his life, since I was nowhere near comfortable enough to say such things myself. I supposed even without saying a lot of things out loud, we still seemed to get a general understanding of one another. Or he did, anyway.

We took a taxi away from the airport after we landed, and decided to drop me off at home first. I was relieved to be back at last, though the trip itself hadn't turned out at all like I'd thought it would—it had actually been fun, unlike all the other trips I'd taken in the past. But with Heng there, it seemed as though whatever we did it would be fun.

Though I really could have gone without getting ogled at for an hour.

Regardless of the discomfort it had caused me, I was burning with curiosity, wondering who it was all of those students had mistaken me for. My brother was, naturally, the first person to come to mind during my musings. But since he hadn't contacted my father or I after he'd left home eleven years ago, I had no idea where he was living, what he was doing as a profession, or anything else. For all I knew, he was dead and the person I resembled was a complete stranger who just happened to look like me. So much like me that everyone was fooled. It seemed like too much of a coincidence to all be an accident.

However, if it really was my brother, I could see why my father had sent me to T City, rather than going himself. A lure to draw him back home, or something of that sort, I supposed.

As our taxi pulled to a stop outside the gigantic front gate to my house, I slipped out of the car and waited as the taxi driver got out to open the trunk where my luggage was. I glanced through the thick bars of the gate, and sighed, turning back toward the car. I couldn't quite decide whether I wanted to be happy I was home, or a bit depressed.

Heng climbed out as well to say goodbye, and I cheered up slightly as he helped pull my luggage out of the trunk. Not that I'd needed help.

He gave me a quick hug before I rolled my luggage away toward the gate. I paused halfway and looked back, feeling somewhat reluctant to go inside now that I was actually there. "Goodbye," I called, if only to delay myself even more.

Heng waved a hand and smiled slightly before stepping back to the open door of the waiting taxi. "See you later."

I turned away and once again headed for the gate. I was about ready to enter the security code in the gate's electronic lock, but it suddenly opened on its own as I neared. Someone in the house must have seen my arrival through the gate's security cameras.

Hesitating a moment more, I looked back again. Heng was still there, watching my slow progress with an amused smile.

Feeling a bit reassured that he hadn't ridden off right away, I hurried to the house at last. My feet didn't seem to want to move me forward as I watched several servants pile out of the front door and quickly walk toward me. My pointless luggage carriers. They never seemed to notice that I was a grown man, perfectly capable of carrying things on my own. My bags had wheels, for goodness sake. How difficult could it possibly be for me to roll them about by myself? I felt like I was being treated as an invalid. Then again, it had always been like that.

The front door shut behind me with a dull thud and I took a deep breath of the familiar, cold air of the spacious entryway before starting up the steep stairs. One of the maids followed me at a slow pace, dragging the luggage awkwardly up the steps behind herself. It took me quite a bit of self-control to keep myself from turning around and snatching them away from her.

"Zian."

I almost tripped as the deep voice harshly boomed out above me. It reverberated oddly in the silent hall afterward, and I looked up to find my father standing at the top of the stairs. My face paled slightly as renewed flashes of my nightmare flew into my mind, though he did look quite a bit less demonic in real life than he did in my imagination.

Blinking slowly, I resumed my ascent and stopped a few stairs down from him. "I am home, father," I said quietly.

"How did the signing go?" he asked promptly as I finally dared to stand on the landing with him. "I trust there were no problems?"

"No, it went perfectly." I tried to calm my pounding heart. I hadn't been expecting to see him here, and I definitely hadn't been expecting him to ambush me on the stairs.

"As it should have," he added, and turned away. I watched as he walked toward the enormous, circular window overlooking the front grounds of the mansion. I was about to retreat to my office, though I doubted he was finished with me just yet, when he abruptly turned back around and stared at me. "Zian," he called again, in a much colder tone than before.

"Yes, father?"

He was silent for a moment, and then looked back out the window. "Why did you return early, in a common taxi, much less with your employee in tow?"

I couldn't think of anything to say in reply. Well, I could, but nothing he would deem justifiable. It was probably better to stay silent in this sort of situation to avoid making him even more angry than I knew he already was. One wrong action and who knew what would happen afterward.

He finally turned around and briskly walked toward me. I stared at him as he stopped in front of me and gave me a disgusted look. "I arranged your departure for tomorrow morning, yet you felt the need to do this?"

"I am sorry, father," I said quickly, attempting to take a deep breath. "It was thoughtless of me, it will not happen again. I promise."

"Of course it will not happen again," he snapped angrily, raising a hand. I flinched as he roughly shoved me backward, and I stumbled into the carved wooden banister, catching myself to avoid falling over. "Stupid as you are, you are still the heir to my company. I will not have you humiliate me further than you already have by gallivanting about the city with the likes of that employee of yours.

"You are getting far too close to him, and are not to talk to him again, aside from when necessary. I will not hesitate to fire him if anything else happens like what just did outside," he informed, and walked away without another word.

His evenly-spaced footsteps echoed down the hallway for what seemed like years before they were muffled as he went into his rooms. Standing still for a moment, I tried to get my breath back. His words always had the mysterious power to suck all of the air out of my lungs.

I slowly went to my own office a few minutes later, and dismissively waved away the maid. She dropped the clothes she'd been unpacking, and bowed herself out of the room. I locked the door behind her and went to my bedroom. Not bothering to change into my sleepwear, I fell face-down onto my bed, attempting to block out the dull pain starting to grow in my left hip where I'd collided with the banister. What was I supposed to do now?

* * *

_There are certain developments developing that I never meant to develop… Oh, geeze._


	10. Mysteries Solved

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

I felt as though I never had enough time. Time for what I wanted. Time for what I needed. Time to do the things I should. Time to say the things I should. Time was constantly slipping through my fingers, no matter how tightly I tried to hold on.

Often I wondered just where it was that the time went when I wasn't paying attention. Many times I would find myself thinking, and discover that the opportune moment for whatever it was I was thinking about had faded away a long time ago.

Perhaps that was why I was so terrible at conversing. My habit of over-thinking anything and everything, turning things around in my mind over and over and over until I'd confused myself so much, I could no longer form a coherent response to what was said to me because I simply couldn't remember just what it was in the first place. I may have been able to grasp the words themselves, but their meaning had become mangled and distorted.

And that didn't apply to only engaging in conversations. My affliction of silence spread to starting conversations, as well. Such as attempting to tell Dib that I couldn't speak to him anymore. At least, not in the real world. I'd been so happy to discover him so close to me, and that had been taken away in a matter of days. My feelings had been mutual, so how would he react to my news? It wasn't as if we would never speak to one another again, since we had every night to spend together in Second Life, but what if my father took that from me as well?

I'd promised myself that a division like this would never happen. So why did it? Why did things have to be so unmanageable? My father was constantly pulling me toward him, again and again, and I truly did want to obey him, whether out of my constant wish for his acknowledgment, or simply out of love for him, but what I'd thought was an unshakable loyalty to him had indeed been shaken, and so easily.

Regardless of my fear of the response I would get from both sides, I still had to say something.

Logging into Second Life at last, I stood silently for a moment in the weak sunshine, and then hesitantly messaged Dib that I was online. It didn't even take a minute for his happy face to appear over the top of one of the hills nearby as he hurried toward me as fast as he could.

I looked away from him long before he reached me, and stared out over the boar-filled hills we'd been training in before the business trip. A faint grin tugged at the corner of my mouth as I saw the corpses of several small boars, and even a bigger one, littering the ground nearby. The thought of Dib finally getting the courage to kill things on his own made me feel somewhat lonely and happy at the same time, like a proud parent watching their child grow up.

"Hey, Al!" Dib greeted me energetically, crashing into me and hugging my leg as he came to a very abrupt stop. His chubby cheeks were pink from running so far, and he beamed up at me, waving his stuffed pouch in my direction. "I killed some boars by myself! It took you so long to login, I got bored. Why were you so slow? It's been hours and hours since I left your house, I thought maybe you'd been so tired you forgot to login and fell asleep instead! Well, anyway, let's go to the city, I want to sell this loot, and then we can come back out and fight more!" he babbled, barely taking any breaths in between sentences as he attempted to clamber onto my back without waiting for me to bend down for him.

I wordlessly knelt in the grass, pulling my long hair over one shoulder so he'd stop yanking on it, and carefully stood again as he finally got into place. He continued to chatter at me as I extended my wings and quickly lifted us into the air to fly toward Star City again, but I couldn't quite hear him through my thoughts. I didn't know how to bring up what I wanted to say, since "Let's not be friends anymore, or else you're fired," was far too blunt. Not that I could get a word in edge-wise with his ceaseless rambling about how he took down the boars while I wasn't there.

Nearly an hour later, I lowered us to the ground in a clear spot near the edge of Star City's bustling market area. Dib slid off my back and told me to "Stay put!" while he went into the shop, since the place was fairly crowded and would be much easier to maneuver if the one maneuvering was as short and agile as Dib.

Depending on the density of the crowd, he could easily slip between legs and get to his destination in a matter of moments, decreasing his shopping time considerably than if I'd been with him, attempting to squish myself through the mass of bodies. Plus his adorable, cutesy appearance was always a great help when it came to line-cutting. And price-haggling, and spontaneously receiving free items from complete strangers, and getting good seats in restaurants, and other things, besides, making his seemingly-inconvenient tiny size actually very useful in many situations.

Sighing slightly, I obediently stood where Dib left me, watching people hurry past. There were many teams here nowadays, crowding the shops and training in large clusters in areas much nearer to the city than Dib and I trained in.

I vaguely remembered seeing a poster in the Adventurers' Guild for some enormous fighting competition that they were probably gathering for, but I hadn't paid it much attention, because Dib and I didn't want to participate. He was terrified enough as it was killing monsters, I didn't want to know what would happen to him if he was thrown into an arena with hundreds of other people all trying to murder him.

And I doubted that I would be able to get myself to kill something that was actually human. Monsters, fine. They were simply lines of computer coding. But I felt nauseous at the thought of taking the life of a real person, regardless of the fact that they would immediately reappear elsewhere, alive and well.

Looking around for a moment, I searched for a place I could sit down to continue attempting to think of ways to bring up my father's threat while Dib did whatever it was he was doing. I spotted a small bench in an out-of-the-way place beside a little fountain and began picking my way through the crowd. But before I could get far, I was almost knocked off of my feet when someone ran into my back, and something soft and warm bounced off of the back of my head.

Feeling somewhat annoyed, I quickly turned around, expecting to find Dib there, mischievously smiling up at me for managing to sneak up and surprise me. Rather than Dib, I found myself looking down at a warrior elf I didn't know. Not the Very Angry Dark Elf, much to my relief.

"I-I'm so sorry!" he hastily apologized, looking wildly behind himself rather than at me. He was breathing heavily as if he'd been running from something. It seemed he'd lost whatever or whoever it was, and after a moment he relaxed slightly, turning to look up at me at last. "Are you…" he began to ask, but then froze. His large, red eyes widened in terror as they darted between mine, and his mouth dropped open as he gaped at me.

Well, there was a new reaction I hadn't seen before.

Without giving me a chance to reply, he suddenly screamed, "HOW DID YOU—STOP CHASING ME, YOU DAMN IDIOT!" before punching me and taking off once again through the crowd, leaving me standing there, holding my swelling face and feeling extremely bewildered.

Yet another weird person. How did they keep managing to find me? At least none of the other ones had hit me.

Wondering what it was that had hit the back of my head, I looked around on the ground for a moment. My eyes halted on a round, white thing sitting by my feet. Crouching down, I carefully picked it up and straightened, searching the crowd for the violent elf to give it back to him, but he was nowhere in sight.

Frowning in irritation, I stared at the white, squashy-feeling thing, turning it around in my hands to see what it was. In shock, I almost dropped it a moment later as a very large pair of eyes looked up at me from the side of the thing. It was alive.

"Mama?" it called, looking up at me in confusion. I didn't know what to say back. I wasn't its mother. I wasn't even a female. Nor was that elf, or so I'd thought. He was very pretty, but clearly not a girl.

I held the white thing closer to myself so no one would bump into it, and resumed my walk to the bench. Quickly sitting, I stared at the thing in my hands, wondering what I was supposed to do with it, now that its owner had run off in a screaming panic to some unknown place.

"You're not Mama!" it yelled at me indignantly, and began bouncing up and down on my palm to turn itself around. "WHERE'S MAMA?"

When it launched itself into the air in an attempt to escape, I frantically grabbed it before it could bounce away and lightly patted what I assumed was it's head—it seemed to be _all_ head, or maybe all body—having no idea what to do.

"Wait a minute, we'll find your mama. Don't worry," I said quietly, standing up again and hurriedly looking around the area, hoping that elf would notice his pet had gone missing. Apparently he hadn't.

"MAMA-A-A-A-A!" the thing wailed, completely ignoring my words.

**"DIB!"** I yelled in a private message, starting to feel panicky over the thing's screams. Many people passing by were looking at me in annoyance as if it was all my fault that it wouldn't be quiet. "P-please calm down," I said to it, trying to sound soothing. Rather than calming down, large tears began to spill from its huge eyes, and it added shrieks to its already-ear-piercing calls for its mother. What in the world was wrong with it?

**"What's wrong, Al?"** Dib's worried voice called back. **"What happened?"**

**"A guy ran into me–"**

**"Again?"** he interrupted, sounding amused.

**"Yes, again,"** I snapped, starting through the crowd to find the shop he was in. **"He ran away and left his pet here. Now it won't stop crying!"**

**"You sure do attract strange people a lot."**

**"Oh, be quiet. Are you almost done?"**

**"Yeah, I'm leaving now."** He laughed and then fell silent. A moment later, he hurried up to me, wearing a new set of upgraded armor. Re-attaching his pouch to his belt, he exclaimed, "Whoa!" and stared wide-eyed at the irritatingly blubbery thing in my hands as tears dripped off its face, splashing to the ground. "I've seen this thing before."

"Good," I grumbled as I quickly scooped Dib off the ground. "Do you know who the owner is?"

"Yep. It belongs to a guy named Prince, an elven warrior," Dib said as he scrambled onto my shoulders, pushed my quiver out of the way, and took the thing out of my hands once he was settled. The thing immediately calmed down as he petted it, though it did keep crying slightly, dribbling large tears into my hair. I wondered how he had managed to calm it down so quickly when I'd only made it scream louder.

Taking off through the crowd, I made my way in the direction the stupid elf had disappeared in. "Who's Prince?" I asked after a moment, hoping we would find the him quickly so we could return his extremely loud, very weird-looking pet, and leave the city again.

"His team, the Odd Squad, is one of the finalists in the Adventurers' Tournament, and a very famous group of players!" Dib answered in an admiring tone. "Sometimes when you couldn't login, I went and watched the dueling matches at the arena. He's totally brutal. I felt like I was watching a horror movie whenever he fought. Blood and guts flying all over the place, screams tearing through the–"

"Okay, I get it," I cut in, feeling annoyed at Dib's praising voice. He sounded like a kid who was rambling about his role model. The elf hadn't looked so scary to me. Especially since he had run away, screaming his head off. The brutal part did fit, however, seeing as how he'd punched me for no apparent reason.

Even if he was a famous player, I'd never heard of him. Then again, aside from what I absolutely needed to know, like the locations of certain shops and good training areas, I knew relatively nothing about the game and other players. I simply didn't see the point in knowing, though now I was wishing I'd paid more attention to Second Life's current events.

I slowed my steps as we left the marketplace behind, and turned to walk down a much-less-crowded side-street. Sighing with relief at not getting squashed anymore, I looked about myself at the dark, star-lit area, wondering where I was supposed to be going. "Any idea where he would be?"

"No," Dib replied after a moment. "I never really got a good look at him or his teammates, either, 'cause my seat was always pretty far away from their section. They have a lot of fans who crowded me out."

"Prince is–"

"Mama was hungry!" the thing suddenly interrupted from its seat on the top of my head.

"A tavern," I said, feeling happy that we had a destination. There were only three taverns that I knew of in Star City, and one was graciously right nearby. I could finally get rid of the annoying thing and talk to Dib at last. Not that I had been able to sort out my thoughts in the spontaneous explosion of chaos. I'd been meaning to think things over while I sat on that bench waiting for Dib to finish his shopping, but that Prince person had completely ruined my plans. I didn't even know the elf, and I was already disliking him very much.

Coming to a halt outside the large restaurant, I gently let Dib down and snatched the thing off the top of my very damp head. Holding it in one hand, I opened the door and stepped inside, running my eyes over the brightly-lit interior. It was fairly crowded, but I could see a familiar white-haired head in the corner. He looked rather distressed, and I felt slightly less angry at him, thinking perhaps he really was worried about his pet and wasn't as thoughtless as I'd assumed.

I stepped across the warm room with Dib on my heels, and stopped beside Prince's table, staring down at him and holding the thing out to him. He glanced up in surprise when he noticed me, and then looked down at my hand, a bright smile stretching across his face.

"MEATBUN!" he exclaimed, leaping out of his seat and twirling around to face me. Several of the other occupants of his table looked up to curiously watch the scene.

"MAMA!" the thing screamed in return and bounced off of my palm. Prince caught it as it flew toward him, and hugged it tightly, looking thoroughly relieved that his pet had returned safely.

"I'm so sorry I dropped you!"

"MAMA!"

"I thought you were gone forever!" the elf yelled with tears gathering in his eyes, not looking at all like the cruel, blood-thirsty person Dib had made him out to be, but really looking somewhat ridiculous as he continued to smother his pet with apologies.

Never mind thinking the white thing had been weird, the owner was even weirder.

"Thank you for returning him," Prince said after a very long moment of hugging, and finally looked up at me again as his pet fondly nuzzled his chest. "Oh, and sorry for punching you. I thought you were someone else…"

"No, it's fine," I replied with an awkward nod, and made to leave again, but a pink-clad woman at the table suddenly stood up.

"Wait!" she commanded, staring at me with a startled expression. Her reaction was shared by several other people, and they looked up at me with their wide eyes filled with interest and surprise.

Not again…

"Gui! Quit stuffing your face, and look at this!" She roughly slapped her hand across the back of the head of a man sitting between her chair and Prince's at the table. He'd been bent over his plate of food ever since Dib and I had arrived, not seeming to be interested in what was going on around himself.

At her loudly-spoken words, I involuntarily lowered my gaze to breathlessly watch as the man finally looked up, rubbing the back of his head. I felt as though my heart was about to stop as my long-lost brother glared at me with a thoroughly angry and suspicious expression. Things began to click together in my mind at last. It really was him, not some random person unrelated to me. But my relief at finally finding him after so long looked like it was anything but mutual.

"Well, Al," Dib said quietly after a long stretch of silence, briefly patting my leg. "Now we know who people kept mistaking you for."


	11. Short Reunion

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note –** I have no idea if Gui has siblings, and I don't know if Yu Wo ever actually tells us about his past (other than what was provided in that tiny diary chapter, which hardly gave us any information, anyway.) As such, I made things up._

* * *

My first reaction to seeing Gui again was simple happiness. After all, I'd finally been reunited with my prodigal brother after eleven years. I'd hoped all the while he'd been missing that he was living the way he wanted to at last, out from under our father's relentless iron fist. Though I was still caught underneath, that thought was enough to keep my spirits up for quite some time. I was very relieved to see he really was alive and well, and surrounded by friends, at that.

My second reaction was confusion. Seeing how he interacted with said friends was not at all what I had expected. In the eleven years he'd been gone, just what had happened to him, my incredibly intelligent brother, to make him act like he was? Certainly, he used to be rather unpredictable and, at times, just plain weird, but it was like he was another person entirely. Then again, we _were_ in Second Life—the game where everyone had the chance to be whoever and whatever they wanted, regardless of who and what they really were in reality.

My third reaction was shock. Discovering his infatuation with Prince was, to put it lightly, extremely surprising. My beloved brother had become a masochistic homosexual, and didn't seem to find it strange in the slightest. In fact, none of his teammates thought his abnormal behavior was anything but normal. The scholarly image I'd had of my older brother was steadily being demolished the longer I observed him.

As I stepped alongside the team while we headed toward the mountain range near Star City, I watched in slight disgust while my brother romped across the rocky ground, chasing Prince like a maniac and yelling random, embarrassing-sounding things.

Perhaps I was then slipping into my fourth reaction; denial. That ridiculous person couldn't possibly be my brother. It was just someone who looked like him. My brother would never do something like that. And if it really was him—sadly, I knew without a doubt that it was—what in the world had made such a drastic change in him? Actually, I supposed the reason was a _who_ rather than a _what_.

My gaze drifted to Prince, and I angrily narrowed my eyes, deciding once more that I didn't like him, and for an entirely different reason than the Meatbun Incident.

He hit Gui a lot, almost to death at times. It made the punch-to-the-jaw he'd given me earlier in Star City's marketplace seem like a friendly little pat on the cheek. And while the reason for Prince's angry outbursts was completely and painfully obvious, that must have been why Gui was acting like a lunatic. Head trauma. Brain damage. Some other horrible injury that muddled up his brilliant mind. But this was just a game, it was impossible for him to get a long-lasting problem from an injury, no matter how extensive. He'd simply heal in a matter of minutes.

Whichever way it was, I was feeling thoroughly dissatisfied with the situation. Especially since Gui's teammate, Lolidragon, seemed to have no respect for anyone's personal boundaries. She'd been staring at me as close as she could ever since we left the restaurant. Plus that bun had decided to once again uninvitedly take up residence on the top of my head, after loudly declaring that he liked hanging around Dib.

"I…" Lolidragon said after a very long moment of staring at me as we walked along. Her forehead scrunched up in a way that made it look like she was thinking very hard. "I can't understand it! It's just so weird!"

"Well, I apologize for being weird," I mumbled in reply, taking a few steps to one side to widen the distance between us. I refrained from telling her that I wasn't the weird one in this particular situation. While I supposed I was very different from the average "normal" person, I was fairly certain that I was one of the most normal people in that group. Everyone else seemed to have some bizarre trait or another.

"But… seeing someone who looks almost identical to Gui being so… so calm and reserved! It's not normal!" she yelled, ignoring my attempts to get away from her, and once again sidling up to my side, far too close for comfort. "Hey, Dib!" she called upward.

I felt Dib turn toward her as his conversation with the bun was cut off. "Yeah?"

Lolidragon jabbed a finger at me and frowned. "Is Aeolus always so, well, not-Gui-like?"

Dib laughed at her words, and patted the top of my head. "He's one of the quietest people I've ever met. Barely ever says anything unless I force him to, especially in real life. Pretty blunt when he does talk, though, and he has a really nasty temper. Super shy, too.

"By the way, Al," he continued, tugging lightly on a bit of my hair. "I know I said you should express yourself more, but please, don't become like _that_ person. That'd be horrible, in so many ways."

"As if I would ever behave like that," I said quietly, wondering why he would even say such a thing. My mouth automatically turned downward as I watched Gui fly through the air after Prince punched him yet again. He picked himself up after a moment, and gleefully laughed as if the fall had tickled. An urge to drag him away from the violent elf was growing with each passing moment

"Why does that boy feel it necessary to constantly hit my brother?" I asked, turning slightly toward Lolidragon.

She shrugged and looked amused. "That's just what they do."

"Always?" My face paled slightly at the thought of my poor brother being relentlessly pulverized.

"Prince has been beating Gui up from the moment they first met each other," Lolidragon confirmed with a nostalgic sigh.

"And you have never thought to stop them?" I continued, raising an eyebrow at her in disbelief. Forget trying to protect my brother from Prince, wouldn't two people constantly fighting get annoying after a while?

"Why would we?" Lolidragon snorted and waved at hand in the pair's direction. "They're obviously both having so much fun, I think trying to intervene would be more cruel than letting them do what they want."

Shaking my head slightly, I continued on in silence. It certainly did seem as though they were enjoying themselves in some bizarre way, regardless of their violent activities. I still didn't like it, though. Perhaps it was simply the naturally protective bond between siblings, but every time Prince hit Gui, my own fist curled around itself in a want to strike the elf in return. Even if no one else seemed to care that Gui was being used as a punching bag, I did. Very much so.

"Are you and Gui twins?" Doll eagerly asked, staring up at me with a wondering look. "You both look so much like one another!"

"NO!" Gui yelled in an offended tone, suddenly halting in his enthusiastic frolicking and angrily glaring back at us. He then promptly resumed his Prince-annoying like he'd never stopped in the first place.

Since when had he been listening?

"No, we're not," I repeated much more quietly, shaking my head in bewilderment as I watched Prince kick Gui's feet out from under him. I doubted I'd ever get even a shred of understanding as to why they both enjoyed that sort of thing so much.

"Which of you is the older brother, then?" Yu Lian inquired curiously, leaning forward slightly to look at me around Lolidragon and completely ignoring how my brother was now being roughly stomped upon by the elf.

"Gui Wen is older by two years," I answered, quickly looking away from the bloody mess which was my brother, and instead focused on the rocky ground in front of myself, carefully stepping around a small, prickly bush.

Yu Lian's eyes widened slightly in surprise, and Ugly Wolf started laughing. "I would have thought it was the other way around, judging by how you two act," he observed, smiling in amusement as he continued to chuckle. I made a faint noise of agreement—his reasons for thinking such a thing were very clear.

"Is Dib your son?" Doll suddenly asked while Ugly Wolf briefly paused to heal Gui's wounds.

I looked down at the girl with a mixture of perplexity and amusement. "Of course not." He and I didn't look anything alike, why would anyone think that? Then again, he didn't look very much like his real-life self—though that might have simply been because he looked so much younger, Heng and Dib's facial features really were similar to one another—so I supposed the possibility of a real father and son looking completely different from one another in-game wasn't so strange of an idea.

"Your nephew?" she furthered, eyebrows raised slightly.

"No," I replied, shaking my head.

"Your brother?"

"No, Gui Wen is my only sibling."

"Your boyfriend?"

I nearly tripped in surprise at that last guess, which was even more absurd than thinking he was my son. "No," I firmly denied, forcing myself not to glare at her in annoyance. Did I seem like a perverted man who would go after little boys? What in the world…

"Your husband?" Lolidragon calmly continued in Doll's place, looking like she was trying to keep herself from laughing.

"What? No!" I snapped, glancing at her angrily and then looking forward again. "He's my friend!"

"DibDib is _Meatbunbun's_ friend!" that bun abruptly and very shrilly corrected, sounding very angry with me as it bounced up and down several times, soundly smacking me on the head. I'd almost forgotten that thing was sitting on me, with how oddly quiet it had been up there for quite a while.

Emphasis on the "had been". And why wasn't I allowed to call him my friend, too?

"DibDib?" Dib echoed, sounding extremely amused at the unexpected nickname. Somehow, I doubted it wouldn't be the last time I'd hear it. He was manipulative enough without cutesy nicknames, who knew what other people—probably the usual targets of shop clerks and random passerby—would do against his adorable demeanor when he added "DibDib" onto the innocent stares he often used to get the things he wanted.

"You're single, then?" Lolidragon asked, leaning toward me and blinking her large eyes, an obviously seductive look settling on her face. I simply stared at her in shock, not even attempting to form some sort of a response. What was wrong with these people?

"Hey, get away!" Dib suddenly cut in, threateningly waving one of his little arms at the thief and protectively wrapping his other around my head, hugging it tightly against himself. "Stop interrogating Al! He doesn't like it!"

Rather than backing down, her thin arm was suddenly snaked around mine. "LET GO!" Dib and I yelled in unison as I frantically pried her off and took several frightened steps away. At some point, Dib had unsheathed a sword and was brandishing it in her direction as if daring her to make another move on me.

"Oh, so mean," Lolidragon pouted, looking disappointed at my rejection as she crossed her arms, tilting her head to one side. "You're such a bishie, it's a waste."

…What the hell was a "bishie"?

I guardedly watched as she whirled around, laughing heartily and continuing onward toward the mountains, her long, pink ponytail swaying back and forth along with her hips, tall boots clacking noisily over the hard ground. Dib waited until she was quite a ways away until he finally put his sword back, and I let out a long sigh of relief. What a thoroughly creepy person.

"Ah, they're here!" Lolidragon suddenly exclaimed, quickening her pace and running on ahead. Her teammates followed suit, leaving Dib, Meatbun and I where we were standing. Looking up toward where they were headed, I blanched. This night was getting worse and worse.

Dib suddenly started chuckling and leaned on my head, seeming to be much more relaxed now that Lolidragon wasn't there anymore. "Look who it is, Al. It's your buddy!" he teased.

"He's not my buddy," I snapped, walking as slowly as I dared as that dark elf and his team came into view around a large boulder. He immediately stomped up to Gui and began arguing with him. Another mystery was beginning to clear itself up as their angry words floated toward me; they were fighting over Prince. That explained why he looked like he hated me. But, having no interest whatsoever in Prince, I was happy that I wouldn't be shot daggers at anymore.

"You two should be friends," Dib suggested promptly, kicking my chest so I'd walk faster over the rough, uneven ground. "After all, you have a common goal, although your motivation is different."

Common goal; getting Gui away from Prince.

Regardless, I was very reluctant to stand anywhere near him. I stopped a ways off, and watched the two teams mingle together as they began to form a plan for their training session. Prince suddenly turned to look at Dib and I, and quickly ran over.

"May I have Meatbun back?" he asked, looking up at Dib. After a reluctant pause, Dib obediently returned the bun. "Thanks. We're about to get started, if you two wanted to join in," Prince invited with a smile, and hurried back to the others. I couldn't decide if the elf was good-natured or vicious. One minute he was mercilessly thrashing my brother, the next he was smiling like a saint. He certainly had a lot of sides.

"Want to?" Dib asked a moment later.

"I don't know," I answered. Part of me wanted to fly off so I could be alone with Dib, since I still hadn't said anything about what my father had threatened us with, and I wanted to get it out of the way as soon as possible.

But I was also feeling very reluctant to let Gui out of my sight, now that there were two people around who seemed to want nothing more than to cause him harm. And although I was sure the dark elf wouldn't have minded in the slightest if I dragged Gui away with me like I would have wanted, I doubted very much that Gui would agree to be parted from Prince, if only for a little while. Especially if I was the one taking him away from his beloved.

"What do you want to do?" I tilted my head back to questioningly look at Dib.

"I think it would be interesting to be able to fight with a team," he replied, leaning his elbows on my forehead and smiling down at me. "Since it's always just us, we never get to fight the higher-leveled mobs. Just the lower-leveled stuff."

I gave him a playful smirk and sighed. "You and high-level monsters, hm? Sounds like quite the combination."

His golden eyebrows drew together and he pulled on my cheek in annoyance. "You jerk, what's that supposed to mean? I can take them, no problems!"

"You don't even know what they are yet," I pointed out, finally walking toward the others. Though I was very anxious to talk to him, I supposed we could stay for a little while longer, since that was what he wanted. We still had the majority of the night to pass, anyway.

"You're here too, are you?" the dark elf commented blandly as he watched us approach. He still looked at me a bit suspiciously, though not at all like he had in the past.

"Obviously we are," Dib chirped in amusement.

I held my breath after Dib's little remark, and the elf walked over to us with a blank look. He stopped in front of me and ran his eyes over the two of us scrutinizingly. "You're Gui's brother?" he asked at last, to which I nodded wordlessly. "I see. I'm Wicked," he informed with a nod.

"Aeolus," I said quietly.

"Dib."

He suddenly frowned and raised an eyebrow. "Hey, are you two the ones who passed by the coffee shop earlier today, around lunch time or so?"

I nodded again. Dib suddenly leaned over the top of my head and pointed a finger in Wicked's face. "It was us! And I didn't get a chance to say this earlier, but stop glaring at Al! He didn't do anything to you! You're being mean and creepy! If you hadn't been scaring him, we coulda gone inside, rather than walking for miles and miles to find another coffee shop to go into! I almost starved to death 'cause we walked for so long! And–"

"It's fine," I muttered, cutting off his long string of exaggerations and looking away from Wicked's slightly indignant expression. "I know why it was happening now."

He glanced up at Dib, and then down at me again. "I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, it won't happen again. I figured it was you after you both left. Gui definitely would have come inside," he ended with a snort.

I smiled humorlessly at him. "Yes, I suppose it won't happen again, since Dib and I don't live in T City."

"Those two are in T City?" Gui demanded, glaring at me in suspicion, but obviously not directing the question at me. My heart sank with the hateful tone he was speaking in. I'd hoped that, with eleven years gone past since the last time we'd seen one another, he would have been a little bit more tolerant of me than he had been. It was extremely disheartening to find that he wasn't. But I supposed the fact that he wasn't attempting to murder me or anything was a good sign, at least.

"No, we're not," Dib corrected. "We were for a few days, and just so happened to stumble across Wicked earlier, but now we're not, so shut up and relax already yet, geeze. You're being really annoying, trying to pick fights with Al for no good reason."

Gui frowned angrily at Dib, but turned away again without arguing further. Wicked looked between he and I in confusion, but cleared his throat and said, "Well, um… were you both planning on training with us?"

"Can we?" Dib asked hopefully as he leaned against the back of my head.

"No. They shouldn't," Gui suddenly denied, unwantedly jumping into the conversation again. I hesitantly looked up to meet his narrowed eyes, trying to think of something to say to help him calm down. The constant anger in his voice deeply hurt me. He probably thought I was there to spy on him for our father, or something of that sort.

"Why?" Prince wondered, looking between us with a wide-eyed expression. His words were echoed by several other people, making me feel a bit warm. They were people Dib and I had only just met, yet they were standing up for us. Second Life was certainly giving me a lot of opportunities to experience new things. Perhaps they were only being polite, but it was still very kind of them to include Dib and I in their group.

However, that brief, warm feeling quickly faded away when I looked back to Gui.

He crossed his arms over his purple robes and coldly turned away from me. "Because. We two teams have been training together since the tournaments were canceled for the Grand Melee, thus we've gotten a firm hold on how we can maximize our training time. Those two will only get in the way."

I dropped my eyes as Prince proceeded to slap Gui upside the head, yelling reprimandingly at him for being rude. Dib's arms tightened around me comfortingly, but I took a step backward and nodded. It wasn't as though his anger toward me was unjustified, but it still stung.

"We'll be leaving, then," I said quietly, extending my wings and turning around as Dib carefully slipped off my shoulders, settling onto my back. I paused after a few steps and glanced at the group, smiling faintly toward Gui. "I'm sorry to have bothered you, Gui Wen. It won't happen again."

"Aeolus, wait!" Prince called, walking quickly toward Dib and I before we could take off. "You can stay if you want, don't listen to that idiot! You aren't–"

"No," I firmly interrupted, shaking my head in a refusal. "Thank you for your invitation, but I don't want to cause problems."

Prince inhaled and opened his mouth to say something else, but I began to beat my wings as hard as I could, wishing to get away as fast as possible. Dib re-tightened his grip around my neck, startled at my sudden movements. I glanced downward once more, but Gui hadn't looked back.

Squeezing my eyes shut for a moment, I took a deep breath and flew Dib and I away.


	12. Pondside Chat

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

"Al, stop!" Dib's faint voice reached my ears through the roaring wind, not for the first time, but I ignored him. I didn't want to stop until we were as far away from Star City as we could be. Or at least as far away from _Gui_ as we could be. The unfading look of hatred on his face when he saw me again was more than enough to make me wish Dib and I had never left Sun City in the first place. Ignorance was bliss, and I was sorely missing it.

Shakily reaching a hand to my pouch, I withdrew a nearly-empty bottle. The contents had long-since been drained over the course of our lengthy flight, barely a mouthful of the bright orange concoction remained, but it was enough for now.

Uncorking the small bottle, I drank the remainder of the stamina potion as best I could from my horizontal position. The refreshing-tasting potion eased the pain in my muscles slightly, making the continued rhythmic beating of my wings a little more bearable.

I returned the empty bottle to my pouch for future use, and unblinkingly fixated my eyes once more on the curved line of the horizon, focusing all of my attention on the sound of the wind rushing past and hoping vainly that it would be enough to drown out the ever-growing discomfort in my body and mind.

"I said stop!" Dib ordered again, this time pounding a fist on the back of my scaly leather top. I made no response, if only to fly faster. He leaned closer to my head, tugging on my shoulder guards as if he would be able to slow me down. "Al! You've been flying for hours! Potion or not, you're going to kill yourself if you don't take a break!"

He waited several minutes for a reply, but when I didn't give any sign I'd heard him, he surprised me by shifting out of place as if he was slipping off my back. "If you don't stop, I'm gonna jump!"

"You wouldn't!" I yelled in disbelief over my shoulder, hoping that I was right.

I wasn't.

Dib stared at me defiantly for a moment, and then swung his left leg over my head to join his right dangling down the other side of my chest. My eyes widened in shock as he purposefully slid off before I could attempt to grab him.

I immediately pulled in my wings and fell after him. His calm face looked extremely out of place as he fell through the air with his arms crossed over his chest as if he were leaning against a tree and _not_ falling to his death from several hundred feet above the ground.

Trying to make myself as flat as possible, I watched as he got closer, urging myself to fall faster. Glancing past him, a dread filled me as I saw the not-so-soft ground rushing toward us with much more speed than I would have liked it to have. I looked back to Dib, and reached out to him. Rather than taking my hands, he simply continued to stare blankly up at me.

Panic started to roar through my head. Much longer and I wouldn't have enough room to pull us safely out of the fall.

"TAKE MY HANDS, YOU IDIOT!" I screamed, trying desperately to stretch my arms further toward the boy, but he was still slightly out of my grasp.

A tiny smile twitched at the corner of his mouth, and he finally uncrossed his arms and did as I asked. Drawing him against me, I held him as tightly as I could while I unfurled my wings. The wind painfully tore through them as we roughly spun about, scattering black feathers into the air behind us.

I managed to slow down slightly and make the angle of our fall much more shallow, but not nearly enough to gain any altitude.

Twisting around at the last moment, I skidded across the grass on my back, cradling Dib protectively in my arms. My grip on him involuntarily tightened as I felt the humerus of my left wing snap in two as it was crushed between my back and the ground. Arrows and my bow bounced out of my quiver and scattered across the grass. I shut my eyes and gritted my teeth, blocking the lovely sight of the bright blue sky stretching out above us while I did my best to keep myself from yelling when wave after wave of hot pain washed over me as I felt, all too clearly, many of the other delicate bones in my wings break into countless pieces when they snagged on rocks.

"That's more like it, idiot," Dib chided peevishly as he sat up after we'd come to a stop at last.

My arms released him and dropped wearily to the bloody ground. I didn't open my eyes to see what he was doing as I felt his hands tug at the pouch on my hip. Stubborn refusal to look at him wasn't the reason, but a simple want to hold back the tears brought on by the agonizing pain screaming through my body. I wondered faintly if my bow was okay, or if it had met a similar fate as my mangled wings.

Stupid realism level.

Stupid Dib.

Stupid Gui.

Stupid me.

The smooth glass surface of a potion bottle was pressed gently to my lips, and I let my mouth open slightly. Rather than pouring a little bit, Dib upended the bottle's contents in their entirety, and I nearly choked as the health potion filled my mouth, its medicine-like taste mingling with the all-too-familiar metallic, salty tang of blood that was covering my tongue.

Coughing for a moment after I'd swallowed the potion, I finally opened my eyes and grimaced in discomfort as my wings fitted themselves back together and stopped jutting out at bizarre angles underneath me, the deep scrapes on my arms and back disappeared, and the headache I hadn't noticed until just then stopped pounding through my skull.

My body felt better, at least. Now all I needed was a potion for my numerous mental injuries.

Looking away from the sky, I dropped my eyes to look at Dib, wondering if he was uninjured. It seemed that he was, and he steadily stared back at me with an angry, challenging look as if he was daring me to try to fly again.

"Surely there was a less reckless way to make me stop?" I demanded hoarsely after a moment. "What would you have done if I hadn't caught you?"

"I knew you would," he said simply as he squashed the small cork back into the neck of the empty bottle in his hands.

"You trust people too much."

"And you don't trust people enough," he retorted snappishly, glowering down at me. "Especially me!"

Sighing, I let my head fall back onto the itchy grass. "Well, if past experience has taught me anything, those who I assume are close to me always aren't."

"Consider me to be the first exception, then, because I am." With a confident air, Dib returned the bottle to my pouch before climbing off my chest and hurrying away from me.

Carefully sitting up, I watched as he walked back the way we'd come, picking up my scattered arrows as he went. With realization, I ran my eyes over the long stretch of scraped-up ground we'd slid across. "Damn it all," I murmured angrily, quickly lifting a hand to touch the back of my head. Dirt, blood, grass, and leaves. Never mind a less reckless way to stop, couldn't it have at least been a cleaner method?

Standing shakily, I looked around for a moment and then hurriedly stepped to where my bow was resting in the grass a few feet away. Scooping it up and inspecting it, I was very happy to see it was undamaged, save a few new scratches on the limb's surface. After returning it to my probably-just-as-beat-up quiver, I turned around, hoping there was a river near in which I could wash myself off. Whatever was going on, I refused to be covered in filth.

My gaze snagged on a sparkling light between the trunks of a few scattered willow trees, and I ran toward it, feeling relieved. Quickly sliding to a stop, I stared in revulsion at the once-longed-for pond. Giant brown water beetles as big as horses were skating to and fro on the rippling surface of the dark water, chittering to one another.

"Damn!" I swore again. Beetles and the like were something I made a point to never attempt to train on. Their exoskeletons were far too thick for my arrows to puncture. Plus they flew, making escape nearly impossible.

Why couldn't there have been a fish monster, or something of that sort?

Stupid beetles.

"Al, what are you doing?" Dib asked as he came to a stop beside me, clutching my arrows in his arms. He let loose a sigh as he watched the nearest beetle float past, and then looked up. "Is now _really_ the time to scope out potential training spots?"

"I'm not!" I denied in annoyance over my bath being taken away from me, and took my arrows back. Slipping them into my quiver, I crossed my arms and frowned. "I wanted to wash my hair, it's filthy now."

"I shoulda known, you neat freak," Dib muttered, running his eyes over the bank. "C'mere," he said after a moment, taking my hand and leading me around the edge of the water, far away enough that the shiny beetles didn't seem to notice our presence. We walked quietly to avoid exciting the swimming insects, and eventually stopped a quarter of the way around the pond where a long wooden dock was built over the water.

Dib let my hand go as he stepped up to the water's lapping edge and waved toward the pond. "Stay by the dock and you probably won't get seen."

Sending a cautious glance to the beetles I could see in the distance, I hurriedly slipped the leather bracers off my forearms. Dib sat himself down on the edge of the dock, removed his boots, and stuck his feet in the water while I carefully took off the rest of my armor and placed it all neatly on the ground next to my belted pouch and quiver.

Wishing I had a comb or something, I stepped into the warm water and waded out until I was close to Dib, and nearly out of sight of the beetles. I hoped there were no smaller ones lurking under the water where I couldn't see.

Looking downward somewhat fearfully at the water rising and falling slightly about my waist, I dipped myself underwater and glanced around. No beetles in sight. Quite a few small, silvery fish darting about, but they didn't attack me, so I quickly ran my fingers through my hair, getting quite a bit of the dirt and leaves out in only a few seconds.

Once I resurfaced, Dib waved me over and I sloshed toward him. He took me by the shoulders and turned me around, sliding himself as close to me as he could without falling off his seat. My slight confusion over his actions vanished into gratitude as he began pulling the remainder of the leaves out of my hair, untangling it as he went.

Leaning back against the sun-warmed planks of the dock, I pulled a portion of my hair over my shoulder to help, but he slapped my hand away and took the hair back. "I'll do it," he offered quietly, running his fingers down the length of a now-clean lock of hair. Not wanting to argue anymore, I let him do as he pleased, though it would have gone faster with both of us working at it.

A few minutes pasted in silence, and I suddenly remembered I'd been wanting to talk to him. It seemed like an opportune moment, since there was no one else around at last, save the gigantic beetles on the other side of the pond. But they didn't count.

"Dib."

"What is it, Al?"

Pausing for a moment, I realized I still didn't know what to say. Everything I'd managed to mentally scrape together had been tossed out the window when Gui came into the picture. Whatever way I phrased it in my head, it seemed like it would make him angry.

"Earlier when you dropped me off outside the gate to my house…" I hesitantly started.

"Yeah?" he prodded after a moment of silence.

"My father saw you hug me," I continued, unsure as to how I should explain the rest. I didn't know if he knew anything about my family situation, other than the obvious. Not that I'd ever tried to confide in him.

Dib hummed contemplatively for a moment and slowly pushed some of my clean hair over my shoulder. "I bet he didn't like that," he commented blandly.

"He didn't," I confirmed, feeling relieved that he seemed to understand. It certainly made things easier that way. Well, easier to say.

He was silent for a few more minutes and his hands paused in their work, coming to a rest on my back. "Did I get you in trouble?" he asked, sounding somewhat guilty.

"No," I said quickly. "No, you didn't."

"…If there's no trouble, then why are you bringing it up?" he inquired after a relieved sigh. His fingers resumed their gentle movements, and he threw another leaf in the water. It slowly sank under the surface and out of sight.

"_I'm_ not the one in trouble," I corrected, and turned to face him. He resolutely held onto the hair he'd been messing with, though it already looked clean. Taking a deep breath, I leaned a bit closer and patted his small knee. "Dib, he… he threatened to fire you if I so much as speak to you so casually again."

Dib's eyes widened slightly in surprise, and they shifted between mine. He unexpectedly smirked and shook his head, returning his attention to my hair and laughing. "Geeze, he sure is exorbitant, huh? Going that far, just 'cause I hugged you for like a second. Over-protective to the extreme."

"Of his assets, not of his son," I interjected, frowning at his airy response. This was the moment where he was supposed to be worrying about his career, not laughing over my father's excessive actions. I supposed from an outside view, my father did seem a bit silly for going to such lengths to keep me sheltered, but I knew it was only so I didn't do anything to embarrass him. Not that I thought my or Dib's actions were embarrassing in the slightest. It was just a hug.

"Either way, he can do whatever he wants. It's his problem, not ours," Dib said calmly, sending a brief glance upward.

"I refuse to cost you your job."

Dib finally let my hair slip through his fingers and he leaned back, staring at me with an unreadable expression. "Are you… are you doing what I think you're doing?" he whispered, but I didn't reply, unsure of what to say. His eyes filled with worry at my silence. "Are you leaving me?"

"No," I answered, but then paused. "Well, actually yes. At least, in real life. If we don't talk to one another unless we have to, he'll leave you alone." I tried to smile at him encouragingly as the look on his face took a turn for the worse. "We can still hang out here in-game," I hurriedly pacified, waving a hand through the air.

Dib breathed deeply for a moment. "What if I say no?"

My eyes narrowed at his continued apathy toward his situation. "If you and I don't distance ourselves from one another, you'll get fired and we'll see each other even less than we already do."

"Al, you're more important to me than my job," he softly apprised, looking extremely droopy as he frowned, glancing away from me. He raised his face again, suddenly seeming a bit more hopeful than before. "I can just find another one, and then we can still meet in real life, right?"

I shook my head slightly and his face fell back into its previous cheerlessness. "That won't work. He'll just find another way to stop you from associating with me. And then if he finds out I play this game, you and I won't see each other _at all_."

He simply stared at me with a stubborn expression, making no effort to agree, and I sighed. "Dib, please?"

His eyes dropped to his hands and he nodded faintly at last. "If that's what you want, okay. I won't try to talk to you anymore."

"It's not what _I_ want, it's what _he_ wants," I clarified, leaning on the dock again, and resting my head on the smooth, faded planks, deeply breathing in their wooden scent. "If it were up to me, I wouldn't be doing this at all. But unfortunately, the choice isn't mine to make."

Dib shifted closer to me and picked up some of my hair again. It was already clean, but he simply ran it through his fingers. "I don't think I like him very much," he mused after a moment.

I laughed and turned my head toward him. "At times, I don't suppose I do, either."

He sighed and threw my hair over my shoulder, splashing his feet through the water. "Well, thanks for letting me know, rather than suddenly ignoring me without an explanation." He gave me a tiny smiled and continued, "It makes me happy that you're trying to protect me, though I don't like how we have to go about things even more sneakily now, like we're doing something wrong by being friends. It was hard enough pretending to be unfamiliar with you whenever we were around other people during the business trip."

Lifting myself onto the dock, I sat beside him and started wringing the pond water out of my pants. "Yeah, I know. But it's all we can do for now. Hopefully things will improve with time."

Nodding briefly, he stared out over the quiet pond. Several minutes later, he sighed once more and stood up, kicking the water off his feet and slipping his boots on. "I have to log off, my alarm clock is ringing."

My eyes widened at his words, and I stood up, too. In all of the confusion, I'd forgotten to set mine last night before I logged in. I was very glad he'd reminded me. If I'd slept in, it would have been disastrous. My father was already on my case for plenty of things, I definitely didn't need to add more.

"Okay." I nodded at him and ran toward the bank to pick up my things. Yanking my top over my head, I waved an arm at him. "Bye."

Dib waved back, a troubled look on his face, and vanished from the dock.


	13. Meeting Jiao

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

"Zian-xiānshēng, the president wishes to see you in his office."

Those were not the words I wanted to hear. Especially not when I only _just_ got to the office after nearly sleeping in and having to prepare for work at break-neck speeds. Couldn't I at least be given a bit of time to wallow in my Paper Typhoon before he summoned me? And if he had something so terribly important to say, why didn't he say it last night while he was threatening to fire Heng should I so much as accidentally look in the general direction of my employee? In fact, I'd made a point to blink as much as I possibly could while walking past his desk not ten minutes ago, pretending to have something in my eye. Maybe that was why I was called. I had looked silly in front of my underlings.

How terrible.

Whatever the reason, I hurried to his office without a word. For once, he didn't pretend not to notice my presence as I stopped in front of his desk. He looked rather attentive, really. Although after a few moments, I thought perhaps I preferred his inattentive side. Being stared at so intensely with those dark, hawk-like eyes of his was rather frightening. But he did seem like he was in a rare cheerful mood for a change. What was "cheerful" for him, anyway.

"Zian," he said quietly, leaning forward a bit and tapping one of his fingers on a small card on his desk. "At four o'clock, be prepared to leave. You will be escorting your fiancée to dinner tonight at five."

I tried very hard to keep the surprise off my face as he spoke. After so long of having her existence overlooked, I'd almost forgotten I even had a fiancée. I'd never met her before, because my father had told me years and years ago when she and I had been engaged for some business partnership reason or another that it wasn't necessary to do so, thus she'd been pushed out of my mind to make room for other pressing matters.

My mind reeled briefly as I attempted to remember her name.

"Why do you look so reluctant?" my father asked after a moment of observing my facial expression as it changed several times.

Quickly wiping said expressions off my face, I shook my head. "I am sorry, father. It is just, I was not… expecting it."

"Of course you were not," he remarked tonelessly, ever-so-slightly raising one of his graying eyebrows. "I had not told you."

"I-I have quite a bit of work to do," I quietly said, hoping I could squeeze out of the dinner to get home earlier. The thought of dining with What's-Her-Face wasn't _bad_, per se, I just had many more things I would much rather be doing than eating. Like training with Heng.

"Are your employees there for decoration?" he barked.

"No, father. I am sorry." I hastily shook my head again, mentally apologizing to Heng as well. It looked like he was about to get quite a bit of spontaneous and yawn-inducing overtime. I hoped he didn't have after-work plans, or anything. He was a grown man after all, I wouldn't have been surprised if he also had a fiancée, or even a wife and children.

Dib's bright young face flashed through my mind and I inwardly smirked.

Maybe I would be a _little_ surprised if he had a family of his own.

"Well," my father huffed slightly, leaning back in his large chair again. "I trust you have no prior engagements, which conflict with this dinner?"

"No, father."

He silently gazed at me for a moment with a calculating expression. "Several members of the house staff have informed me you have been spending quite a bit of time in your office, and very little out of the house."

I quickly hardened my face as cold fear filled my stomach. It couldn't be. Had he found out…?

After a small sip of tea, he continued, "You have been working surprisingly diligently lately, I thought it would be best if you went out for once, rather than staying holed up in your rooms all evening. It is not healthy."

That time, I couldn't help but let the surprise leak out onto my face. His words had sounded as though they were getting dangerously close to being considerate, of all things. Then again, perhaps he simply didn't want me collapsing at work, or something else humiliating like that.

Nodding, I stifled a sigh of relief. "Yes, father."

He looked satisfied with my answer, and made to go back to work.

Feeling a bit brave since he seemed so… not murderous, I took a deep, steadying breath. "Father?" Glancing upward, he made a grunty noise, which I hoped translated into "What?" before he looked down again. Taking another few breaths, I straightened myself and clasped my hands together. "May I drive myself to dinner? I drove myself to work this morning, and it would be more time-efficient if I did not make a trip home before going to dinner."

He nodded curtly, surprising me again. "Yes, I suppose so, I have not made transportation arrangements yet." Sliding that small card toward me over his desk, he gave me one more long look. "Do not botch this, as you do so ridiculously often with even the simplest tasks I give you," he ordered in an obviously threatening tone, and waved me away.

I took the card and bowed to him. "Yes, father," I said quickly, and hurried from his office before he could change his mind and demand that I have a chauffeur. Tucking the card into my black suit jacket's inner pocket, I let out a whoosh of breath as I rode the elevator back down to my own floor. That had gone quite a bit better than I'd thought it was going to. He hadn't even glared at me, and only raised his voice a few times. Though I was still feeling rather torn-up about Gui Wen, today seemed somewhat nice regardless.

Rather than attempting to organize and distribute all the work myself, I dragged Heng and my other nine employees into my office with me and we all worked together. I was fairly certain my father would not like that particular method of getting work done faster, but it worked nonetheless, so I ignored the little cautionary voice in the back of my head. He was the one who said I should use them, after all, so use them I did. Just in a different place.

It got rather chaotic from time to time, because one of them who was rather clumsy kept managing to knock over, in extremely spectacular ways, stacks of paper we'd only just sorted, and a lot of food was spilled on the floor during lunch, and my office wasn't really built for eleven people to work in all at once—if they wanted to have breathing room, anyway—but in general it all went rather smoothly, and we were actually able to finish a half hour short of four o'clock when I had to leave.

They all went back to their own work with my quietly spoken apologies over keeping them later, and I then tidied myself up, leaving a bit early for the address of the restaurant written on that card.

I was feeling extremely nervous over the whole ordeal. Never mind that my fiancée, whose name I still couldn't remember, was the daughter of one of my father's important business partners, but simply meeting a new person, especially one I was going to be married to in the most-likely-not-so-distant future, was anxiety-inducing in of itself. However, I tried very hard to calm myself down for the sake of my father. It wouldn't do me any good to make a fool out of myself for being jittery.

After one more moment spent needlessly adjusting my already-straight green tie, I entered the restaurant, wondering if I was too early. I still had twenty minutes until she and I were supposed to meet, but having nothing else to do…

Only moments after I walked inside, I was ambushed—well, greeted—by a restaurant employee. "Min Zian-xiānshēng?" he asked quietly. I nodded twichily at him, wondering why I hadn't been expecting a welcoming party. Of course my father would have called ahead of me for the reservation.

"This way, Zian-xiānshēng," the man murmured in a very formal tone, and I reluctantly followed him away from the entrance, up to the second floor, and into one of the private dining rooms, simply but skillfully decorated in a very soothing way, with cool, creamy colors everywhere, and a calmly floral-patterned wallpaper, which matched the small potted plants on the table and those hanging by the sunny window.

Settling myself on one of the comfortable chairs by the rectangular table, I breathed a sigh of relief once the man went to get me some water. I was somewhat glad my dining partner hadn't arrived just yet. It gave me more time to try to remember who she was.

I slipped the little card out of my jacket pocket and looked at it hopefully. "Lin" was written in my father's hand above the address of the restaurant.

Well, at least I had _half_ of her name.

It didn't take long after my glass of icy water had been delivered, when the door opened again. I quickly stood up and expectantly turned around. I was met with the vaguely familiar-looking polite smile of the petite woman I'd only seen a picture of once, years ago. She'd grown up quite a bit since then. Her shiny black hair fell just past her thin shoulders in loose curls, framing her pretty face and large, dark eyes.

I smiled back and stepped away from the table as she walked inside. Her simple blue dress swished softly as she stopped in front of me and inclined her head for a moment before looking back up, steadily meeting my eyes.

"Lin Jiao," she supplied, much to my relief. I didn't want to know what my father would do to me if he found out I'd forgotten her name. Anyway, asking would have been very rude. Not that forgetting it in the first place wasn't, I thought guiltily. Well, I knew I definitely wouldn't forget it again.

"Min Zian," I offered in return as we walked to the table and sat across from each other. "It is nice to meet you at last."

"Yes," she agreed softly as she arranged herself on the chair.

Having next to no experience with women—much like my not-so-extensive experience with, well, _everyone else_—I felt rather awkward as I attempted to stop staring at her. She looked so pretty, it was difficult. She smelled very nice, too. Sort of like flowers, but with a fresh, grassy undertone that one would probably not be able to get from a perfume. It was a very familiar scent I often noticed while wandering about in the endless meadows of Second Life. Quite… nature-like.

I watched quietly as a waiter set down very large and excessively fancy-looking menus on the table in front of us. I took one brief look at the list of appetizers on the first page and handed the menu back before the waiter had a chance to leave. "Sou and more water, please."

Jiao glanced me in surprise at my abrupt decision, and quickly flipped through her own menu. She closed it a minute later, and handed it to the waiter. "Sou for me as well, to start with. The fried shrimp salad afterward, and a glass of water, please."

As the waiter hurried out of the room, closing the door behind himself, Jiao looked at me with a small, curious smile. "Is that really all you are eating?" she asked after a moment.

My eyes widened at her unexpected question as I took a drink of water. Swallowing slowly, I answered, "Yes," with a nod, feeling amused at the familiarity of the situation. At least she wasn't attempting to talk with her mouth full of blueberry pie as Heng had when he'd asked that same question.

"I am not very hungry," I explained.

Even if I had a bigger appetite, I doubted I'd be able to eat very much with as nervous as I was.

Jiao suddenly looked worried as if afraid I was going to eat and run, but hurriedly I sat up straighter and tapped my hand on the table. "But go ahead and eat whatever you would like. Do not mind me."

She looked somewhat more relaxed afterward, and a little annoyed, though I wasn't sure why. She leaned back in her chair, glancing about the room. I took another drink of water for lack of anything better to do, and attempted to think of something to say. Anything I'd normally be talking about, most likely with Heng, would probably be about Second Life, and I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to say anything about that particular subject. Not yet, anyway.

"How has your day been?" she asked before I could think of anything.

"Oh, it has been," I started, wondering how it had been. It had been a lot of things, and it was hard to choose one word to label it with. "Very good," I decided after a moment. "I had an interesting time with my department's employees earlier. I do not get very many chances to interact with them, and we worked together for a bit this morning. And the weather is very nice today," I added as an afterthought.

Jiao laughed lightly as I finished and smiled brightly, a genuine smile, rather than the polite one she'd been wearing previously. "Yes, the weather is very nice. I was happy to see it so sunny this morning, with how much it has been raining the past week. I got to go outside and walk around for a bit in my garden before attending today's classes."

"You have a garden?" I inquired interestedly, wondering if I had a garden at home on the grounds somewhere that I could show her. Once I thought about it, I realized didn't know much about my own house, aside from my office and bedroom, which were both plant-free.

She nodded, leaning forward slightly in her chair. "Yes, I find tending it to be very relaxing. Do you garden at all?"

"No, I do not," I answered somewhat bluntly, and then, seeing her slightly disappointed look, quickly added, "but I do like looking at the plants," and felt relieved when that seemed to help.

"Perhaps you could visit me sometime while the weather is nice," she offered excitedly, her eyes shining with enthusiasm over the idea. "My brother and sisters mentioned that they would like to meet you, as well."

"I would like that," I agreed, smiling widely. Her engaging attitude was refreshing and infectious, and I was very relieved to find that she was quite easy to talk with. I wondered why it couldn't be so with other people. Something about her set me at ease.

Fishing for something else to talk about, I ran my mind over what she'd said. "You are still a student? What sorts of classes are you taking?"

"I am in my second year of university, yes, working on a degree in botany."

"That sounds very difficult," I commented, feeling thoroughly impressed. I had a hard enough time earning my business degree. Something along the path of science sounded far too perplexing for me. The few mandatory science classed I had to take during my schooling years were torturous. I worked much easier with straight-forward facts and situations, rather than testing and research and such.

Jiao laughed slightly, noncommittally shrugging one shoulder. "It does get somewhat complicated at times, having to memorize so many scientific terms, but it really is a very interesting study."

Smiling, I watched as the door to our room opened and the waiters entered again, carrying a pitcher of ice water and two small plates with three little pastries arranged on top of each. Waiting until the men were gone again, I picked up one of my suo and tore off a corner, slowly eating it. "Your family owns an architecture business, do they not? Will you be working there when you graduate?" I asked, glancing up at Jiao as I set the remainder of the suo back on the plate.

She nodded, taking a small drink of water before replying, "Yes, I will be in the landscaping department. It will be more design-based work, rather than the manual labor I would prefer, but still something I enjoy."

"Well, you shall still have your own garden to tend. So even if you cannot do such things during work hours, there is that, at least," I mused.

"Yes, I suppose the career is not a complete and total loss," she sighed, and I stared at her blankly for a moment, wondering if that was a joke.

Upon noticing the amused smirk she was giving me, I smiled and shook my head slightly, ripping off another piece of my pastry and popping it into my mouth. "Perhaps not completely," I acceded playfully, and she laughed. My smile widened as I listened to the lovely sound.

The rest of our dinner passed by quickly. A bit too quickly, I thought with a dissatisfied frown after I arrived at home again late that evening. I wouldn't have minded spending more time with her, if her ride hadn't come to pick her up. But we'd made plans to see each other again in a few days at her family's home, so I had that to look forward to, at least.

Flopping down on my pillow after I showered and changed into my pajamas, I smiled again as I slipped my Second Life headset over my eyes, feeling much happier than I had in a long time.

* * *

_At last, OC number three has arrived! Introduced much later than I originally planned, and with a very different role, too. She was going to be another spontaneous meeting in Second Life, but, after some thought, I decided to change it._


	14. Their Past

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

Dib wasn't there when I logged in, not that I had been particularly expecting him to be after I'd made him do all that extra work earlier.

Sending a cautious glance toward the gigantic water beetles skating about nearby on the surface of the large pond beside me, I wandered away from the wooden dock to find something to do while I waited for the little boy to appear. Stopping under one of the bowed willow trees on the bank, I twisted around for a moment, attempting to look at my own back. Not being flexible enough in my armor to be able to see that far, I instead ran a hand along the backside of my top, and smiled with relief as I continued on away from the pond, up the small rise. The dirt and grime that had coated my dragon leather armor last night had disappeared by itself without me having to find a way to wash it off somehow.

Oh, the strange goingsons of Second Life.

I stopped as I entered the windy fields, brushing my hair out of my face when it blew about. The land was so flat, I could see for miles and miles. Not that there was anything particularly interesting to look at.

Dib and I may have flown for several hours last night, but we weren't anywhere near Sun City, which was still several days worth of flying away. There was nothing but wilderness and monsters in between the three towns, and that thought made me feel very small, standing out there all alone. I doubted many people came out here, unless they needed to travel to a different city, since it was obviously more logical to stay nearer to whatever city was preferred, for supply replenishing and whatnot.

Sighing in boredom, I looked down at my feet. Quickly sitting in the long grass, I ran my finger over the edge of a petal on a tiny blue flower that was growing there. A warm smile tugged at my lips as I laid down next to it and stretched myself out comfortably, resting my head on one arm and staring at the little plant. The flower was the same pale blue color as Jiao's dress. The petal felt soft under my fingertips, and I wondered if her skin felt as silky. It was so smooth-looking and pale and so very touchable.

I grinned and chuckled self-consciously at myself for having such thoughts, and felt my cheeks burn with embarrassment and happiness that no one else was around to see me acting so strangely.

For the first time in quite a while, I was rather excited about my social plans. I'd had outings with friends before, but I'd always found them very dull. Until Dib happened, I'd always avoided going places unless I went by myself. But now I had Jiao as well.

Though I'd been rather reluctant at first, I was very happy I'd gone to dinner with her. It seemed as though my father had finally forced me into something that would have a positive impact on me. And just yesterday, I'd been so unhappy because of my situation with Gui, but now things seemed much brighter. I even found myself considering returning to Star City with Dib, perhaps to watch that Grand Melee competition thing I knew Gui was going to be competing in with the Odd Squad, though I didn't particularly want to see hundreds of people murdering each other for fun.

Maybe he'd talk to me at last if I went. Maybe I would be able to explain myself. Maybe he would forgive me for what I'd done to him.

But perhaps I was being too optimistic in my good mood.

I gave the flower another brief look, and closed my eyes with a sigh, wondering if it would really be worth it to go see Gui, since I knew he would probably turn me away again like he had last night. However, it seemed somewhat of a shame to finally discover him after eleven years and leave him just like that. I'd been waiting for so long to be able to see him again, and abandoning the chance to attempt to make amends just because he told me to go away seemed rather silly of me, now that I thought about it. But staying and making him even more angry than he already was didn't seem very smart, either.

Damn confusing situations. Why did they keep springing up?

My train of thought was abruptly derailed when something fell on top of me and forced the breath out of my squashed lungs in one large whoosh. "WAKE UP, AL!" the very familiar, high and clear voice of Dib suddenly yelled at me as he punched the side of my head and bounced up and down on my back several times before finally relocating himself by my side. "Don't go to sleep here! One of those beetles might sneak up on you and gnaw your legs off while you're not paying attention!"

Gasping for air, I opened my eyes and rolled over, looking up into the triumphantly smiling face of Dib as he leaned over me. "Oh, thank you for jumping on me. I was just thinking perhaps I wasn't enjoying breathing very much," I declared after I managed to fill my poor lungs again.

Dib chuckled and flopped down beside me with a groan, burying his face in his arms. "No jokes. I'm mad at you, you know, stupid Al," he pouted, angrily kicking both of his legs in my direction.

I knowingly played along, propping myself up on my elbow and apologetically smiling down at him. "I'm sorry."

He flipped himself over, glaring up at me and pointing a tiny finger at my face, stabbing my cheek with it. "You should be, you jerk! Give me a warning next time you suddenly decide to make me work four extra hours. You shoulda heard the names everyone was calling you after you left. They got pretty dirty pretty quick."

"I probably shouldn't," I decided at once. "Anyway, I deserve them. I should have done the work myself, rather than dumping it on all of you."

Dib hummed for a moment, and sat up with a sigh. "Ah, well… It's over and done with. And I told off that one pudgy guy in our department for what he said, whatever his name is. He was being the meanest."

I smirked and reluctantly got to my feet, stretching myself out with a faint yawn. "Thanks."

"Anytime!" Dib chirped as he stood up as well and brushed the grass off his armor.

Hesitating a moment, I bent down and picked the little blue flower I'd been looking at, and then straightened again. Reaching into my pouch, I withdrew one of my empty bottles and dropped the flower inside, corking it up and tucking it safely into my pouch.

Dib watched my careful movements in slight bewilderment, but surprisingly didn't ask anything.

Afterward, I started off across the ground, wondering if there was anything nearby we could train on, besides those water beetles. I paused in my steps and looked behind myself in amusement as Dib clumsily attempted to scale my back. "What do you think you're doing back there?"

"What's it look like?" he asked huffily, dangling several feet off the ground as he held onto my shoulder guard, scrabbling with his boots to try to get a foothold so he could lift himself up. "I'm trying to… Urg! Why are you so darn… tall! I'm trying to climb on! Help me up, Al!"

"Oh, no you don't," I prompted, unwinding his fingers from around my top and taking a step away as he dropped to the grass. "I don't want you riding on my back after what you did yesterday."

He frowned up at me in annoyance. "I only did that because you wouldn't stop!"

"And I'm grateful for your concern," I continued with a slight nod, and resumed my walking, "but not your actions, and I don't want it to happen again."

"It won't!" Dib yelled.

I looked behind myself in alarm as I heard his footsteps hurrying toward me. He was charging me with a very determined frown.

Without another thought, I took off across the grass as fast as I could as he attempted to tackle me to the ground. I may have had lighter armor and much longer legs, but Dib's agility and strength were higher than mine, if only because he had been playing for longer than I had, and it didn't take him ten seconds to close the gap between us.

I evasively darted to one side, not daring to open my wings since the wind resistance would slow me down enough for him to catch me before I could take off. His indignant calls for me to stop running away rang out in the otherwise silent air, and I smiled playfully at him over my shoulder.

Looking backward was a mistake I belatedly found out as my foot stupidly put itself into a hole in the ground, causing the rest of me to fall into the grass with a yell of surprise. I watched as my arrows scattered across the grass yet again.

Dib purposefully landed on top of me a second time after he caught up a moment later, breathing noisily in my ear while he gave me a punch for good measure. I decided to stay face-down in the rather itchy grass for a while longer as he started laughing.

"Nice try, but not nice enough, Al!" he whooped, shifting himself into a more comfortable position on top of my spine. Comfortable for him, anyway.

I laid there quietly for a moment, and then rolled over, squashing him underneath me. He was stronger and faster, but I was undoubtedly _heavier_.

"A-A-A-AH! Get off, Al! Get off! HELP! I'M GONNA SUFFOCATE! GET O-O-O-OFF!"

"I don't think I shall," I announced, relaxing myself thoroughly. He gave a squeak as he was flattened even further. "This is rather comfortable."

"It is _not_! I can't breathe!" he wheezed, slapping my sides as he wriggled around to try to dislodge me. "I'm dying-g-g…"

Heaving a fake sigh over his dramatics, I slowly slid myself backward to lay on the grass instead.

He gave a roar, not acting at all like he was really dying, and roughly shoved my legs off of himself. "You jerk!" he yelled, trying very hard to look angry when a smile kept taking over. When I laughed at his efforts, he finally let his face do what it wanted and punched my leg one more time before flopping himself over my stomach and hugging me while giggling. "Geeze, Al. What in the world has gotten into you today?"

"Mm, nothing much," I murmured thoughtfully, staring at a scraggly cloud that flew over us through the sky. I didn't particularly want to tell him the very personal thoughts I'd been having of Jiao ever since she and I had parted outside the restaurant.

"Did your brother message you, or something?" he inquired somewhat cautiously, sitting up off of my stomach so he could look at me. "Yesterday, you were kinda… well…"

"No, he didn't," I answered, sighing softly as I shook my head. "And I highly doubt he would, with as deeply as he hates me."

Dib stared at me somewhat gloomily for a moment, and finally murmured, "Would it be too nosy of me to ask what his reasons are?"

"Mm," I repeated in a neutral tone. "I don't suppose it would be." He watched as I shifted myself onto my side, allowing me time to put my thoughts into order.

"When he and I were much younger, my father really… he really pushed us to compete with one another," I began slowly. Dib nodded as I paused to tangle my fingers in a patch of grass.

"For a very long time… for years, Gui Wen and I obediently went along with his orders, and we treated the other as rivals, constantly trying to be better than the other. But eventually, Gui Wen decided the whole thing was stupid—which it was, really—and refused to do as my father said any longer. However, rather than removing the burdens he'd placed on us, my father simply drove me harder.

"Since Gui Wen is so talented, he didn't really need to push himself, anyway, and still did extremely well in everything, even with little effort on his part. Me, on the other hand… I wasn't… Well, I'm _not_… I need to push myself so much if I want to achieve even a fraction of what he could so easily.

"I have a lot of respect for Gui Wen, but… but back then, sometimes I caught myself resenting him quite a bit. He is so much more capable than I, and even to this day my father often praises him and compares me to him. When I was a child, it made me feel so… so hopelessly inferior. No matter what I did, I was never good enough. And when Gui Wen stopped trying to compete with me, while I suppose I was somewhat relieved, a part of me was angry at him for it, as if he also saw me as someone who wasn't worthy to challenge him."

Sighing deeply, I tore some of the grass off the ground and tossed it to one side with a frown. Dib stayed silent, his face filled with worry as he waited for me to continue. I quickly looked away from him in fear of what his reaction might be to what was coming next. Feeling extremely ashamed of myself, I took a shaky breath, blinking away the tears which were gathering at the corners of my eyes, and plowed onward in my explanation. "Eleven years ago… Gui Wen confided in me that he wanted to study literature at a university of his own choosing, rather than business as my father had planned for us both.

"I don't know what possessed me to do it… Maybe jealousy, or some naïve hope that my father would stop oppressing us, or something of that sort, but…" I paused again, feeling hot tears spill over my eyelids and run down my cheeks. It was getting harder to breathe, the more I spoke. "I told my father what Gui Wen said to me," I finally whispered, laying my head down on the wet grass and squeezing my eyes shut. Dib leaned against me and slowly ran a hand over my hair, still not saying a word.

"Gui Wen never spoke to me again," I choked out after a moment, "and a month later, he left home. Until our unfortunate reunion yesterday, I hadn't seen him since."

Several minutes passed in silence, save the noise of my crying, and I finally sobbed, "He trusted m-me, and I betrayed him out-t of spite. I'm a h-horrible person, who deserves every bit of t-the hatred he has for me, and mo-more."

"You're not a horrible person," Dib disagreed softly and unhesitatingly, still patting my head.

"Yes, I am," I hiccuped in response as I looked at him in disbelief over the crook of my elbow. After what I'd done, how could anyone think otherwise?

"No, you're not," he persisted. "Truly horrible people don't think of themselves as horrible people. They find twisted ways to justify their actions so they seem good, and you aren't doing that at all."

"That doesn't make what I did any less despicable," I pointed out miserably.

"I didn't say that," he corrected in a somewhat reproving tone at my stubbornness to beat myself up. "Yes, what you did wasn't a good thing, of course, and it's understandable that Gui's angry at you for it, since, knowing how controlling your father is, I'm sure Gui's plans were all messed up with your interference.

"However, you were an affection-starved, completely smothered, neglected, and worn-out 13-year-old boy, who simply wanted his father and brother to acknowledge his efforts. You're not the only one at fault in this situation, so stop trying to take all of the blame, okay?

"I have three younger siblings," he continued with a slight shrug. "I know all too well how bad sibling rivalry can get. Definitely not to your extent, though. And I made plenty of stupid mistakes while I grew up. Many more than I would care to admit. There isn't a person anywhere who can truthfully say otherwise."

I fell into contemplative silence as Dib wrapped his arms around me tightly, burying his face in the back of my neck. "I'm sure if you try to talk to Gui, he'll listen," Dib soothed, his voice somewhat muffled from trying to talk through my hair.

"What if he won't?" I asked quietly.

"He will. After all, he's also had eleven years to grow up and think about things," Dib said confidently. "And if he refuses, we can get those insane teammates of his to help us out."

Chuckling somewhat reluctantly, I smiled at the thought. It seemed as though Prince's violence had a purpose after all. But I didn't want to force Gui to listen. I wanted him to be willing to talk to me, or else there wouldn't be any point in trying to apologize.

Dib suddenly thumped me on the shoulder and stood up, lifting me easily into the air to set me in a sitting position. I looked down at him in surprise, abruptly realizing once more just how strong the tiny boy was. When I'd been squishing him, he could have pushed me off of himself whenever he wanted.

Drawing his small hands over my tear-streaked face, he shot me a determined smile and patted my cheeks. "Now then, let's go back to Star City and find them."

Sighing again, I stared at him for a moment and then nodded. "Okay."

After allowing him time to climb onto my back, I stood up, finally gathering my scattered arrows from where they'd fallen when I'd tripped. I passed them to Dib so he could return them safely to my quiver.

Extending my wings, I slowly took off, aiming for the city and hoping that Gui would willingly listen to me. I wasn't dense enough to assume that he would be over what I'd done, eleven years passed or not—with how he was acting, he obviously wasn't over it at all—but I still hoped he'd give me a chance to apologize, at least, even if he would refuse to accept it.

"Hey, Al?" Dib called after a long stretch of silence.

"What?"

"Why'd you pick that flower earlier?" he asked curiously.

"Oh," I said quietly, smiling fondly down at my hip where the flower was stowed away in my pouch. "I'll tell you later."

* * *

_Ahhhh… I finally tied things together. xD_


	15. Belittlement

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

A few hours and the rest of my stamina potions later, Dib and I were in Star City once more with around half of the night to waste on attempting to persuade Gui to talk to me. We'd searched around the city for a while, checking the restaurant, the Adventurers' Guild, and other spots we thought the Odd Squad might be in, but they were nowhere to be found.

I wasn't sure why we hadn't thought of it beforehand, but Dib then made the suggestion of PMing one of them, rather than wandering around aimlessly. After a quick narrowing down, I decided Ugly Wolf would be the best one to message, since if they were fighting, he, the priest of the team, would probably be the least occupied.

He promptly informed us they were training on dragons in the mountains with Dark Phantom, so off we flew yet again, after a quick stop in the shopping area to buy a few supplies. I definitely wasn't about to go fight dragons without more health and stamina potions.

"Where do you suppose they are?" I asked once we'd finally reached the mountains after flying for nearly two hours. They were rather large and extensive, I realized belatedly as I tilted my head back to try to see their peaks, but some of them went all the way up into the cloud bank. Ugly Wolf had only told us that they were in the mountains. Maybe they had some sort of spot they usually trained at, but I had no idea where it was, nor did I particularly want to fly over the entire mountain range to look for them.

I could have used sound to try to find them, since fighting with dragons didn't seem to be a very quiet activity, but there were numerous roaring and growling noises bouncing all over the place, and I had no idea which way they were coming from, or if they were really coming from the Odd Squad's fight.

Dib lifted himself off my back and sat up straight as if that would help him see better. "There's something to the east," he called after a moment, patting my back and sounding thoroughly excited about the idea of training on dragons at last. "A lot of something!"

Wishing that he would have been more specific as to what it was, I swerved in the correct direction, hoping it was the teams. Speeding us up, I glanced worriedly at the rocky ground scrolling past far underneath us, hoping a random dragon wouldn't fly out in front of us or anything. I wasn't quite prepared mentally to deal with an enormous flying lizard that breathed fire and had the idea permanently fixated in its head that we were food. Dib, on the other hand, sounded completely prepared. I doubted he was. I hoped there was a safe spot somewhere I could let him down when we arrived.

It didn't take long before I realized quite clearly what Dib was talking about. There certainly was a lot of _something—_large spouts of fire and lava blasting into the air like flaming geysers, bolts of lightening shooting about and making the air crackle, and a lot of steam, smoke, and crashes and roars that echoed around the area making it sound as though there were several dragons.

There was also quite the impressive show of magic spells flying here and there and all over the place like fireworks, most likely from the two teams' magicians. I hoped that was the case, anyway. The dragon already seemed to be very talented without being able to use magic as well.

Ignoring Dib's cheering and excited pounding of his fists on my shoulder as he bounced up and down on my back, we cleared the lip of a large crater-like area, and my breath caught in my throat. I nearly did a U-turn in mid air right then and there to fly away as fast as I could and get Dib and I to safety. But I kept flying forward in a very reluctant manner, regardless.

A three-headed dragon as big as an entire house was sitting at the bottom of the hollow, seemingly guarding a cave entrance. One head was spraying fire, one ice, and the last lightening. Those three attacks coupled with its spiked tail, person-sized claws, very sharp teeth, and enormous leathery wings that kept sending little whirl-winds about the air, it looked like something I would never ever want to take on.

Ever.

I knew these people were a little off in the head, but really. Who in their right mind would challenge something like that? The little reassuring voice in my head that told me, "It's just a NPC, it can't really hurt you," whenever I trained wasn't quite working at the moment.

Dropping Dib and I lower, while my entire body and mind were both screaming at me to leave again, I watched nervously as the melee-based team members of the Odd Squad and Dark Phantom attacked the dragon king from the ground. They looked so tiny in comparison, barely coming up to the dragon's ankles. Silly as I thought they were for being so daring, I couldn't help but admire their courage to attack such a terrifying beast.

Arrows and spells whistled through the air from a spot a ways off where the others were hiding in safety, but many of their attacks were harmlessly bouncing off the dragon's thick black scales.

"Hey, where are you going?" Dib demanded. I could feel him twist around to watch the fight we'd flown over and passed.

"I'm not letting you down over there!" I bellowed, swooping lower as I saw the long-range attackers of the two teams come into sight around the rocks they were standing behind.

"I want to fight, too!" he declared. "Go back!"

"No way!" I landed amongst the surprised yells of the group who, aside from Ugly Wolf, must not have known we were coming. I gently lowered Dib to the ground, but then grabbed his arm when he attempted run past me and scramble down the rocky slope to hurry toward the dragon. "You, stay here," I told him firmly, pulling him back to safety.

"But Al, I wanna go, too! Come o-o-o-on!" he whined, leaning backward and twisting this way and that in an effort to escape. "Let go! Let go! I wanna fight! You jerk, let go!"

"No!" Re-adjusting my grip on him, I lifted him off the ground, attempting to ignore the questioning stares of the others. Dib started kicking his legs about while angrily screaming threats at me, and put him back down beside the confused-looking Ugly Wolf. "Stay here!" I ordered. Dib gave me an extremely dirty look, but finally flopped himself down onto the ground, sticking out his bottom lip and crossing his arms.

I took one step back, staring at him suspiciously, but he didn't move. Hoping that he would really stay there, I took off again, pulling out my bow as I went.

**"Wait, Aeolus. I should bless you first,"** Ugly Wolf hesitantly messaged before I could get far, and I paused in my ascent.

**"Oh, I forgot,"** I admitted, expectantly looking down at him. He smiled, laughed for a moment, and proceeded to boost my stats. **"Thank you."**

**"You're welcome. And I don't know why you don't want Dib to join you, but try to come back quickly. He hasn't stopped swearing at you since you left. He's got quite the, um, colorful vocabulary for such a little kid."**

Sighing, I turned to fly away. **"Sorry, don't mind him. I'll be back as soon as I can."** Switching to my own team chat, I commanded, **"Stop swearing at me, you brat. If you came with me, you'd just run away again in a matter of seconds and use me as a shield, like you always do."**

Dib replied just as brilliantly as Ugly Wolf had observed.

Ignoring the heated curse words he was lobbing at me, I hurried back to the battle and tried to get a hold on the situation. It didn't seem like the teams were making much progress as they battled against its three heads, tail and feet all at once. The dragon seemed to have very few openings for attack. Though it was only on the offense, its scaly hide seemed to be enough for defense, and the attackers' blades simply glanced off, doing little damage.

My eyes widened and I rolled to one side nearly on reflex, narrowly missing a large bolt of lightening one of the heads shot at me. The sizzling electricity in the air made the fine hairs on my arms stand on end, and I gritted my teeth, wondering how the world I was supposed to attack the thing.

Pulling out an arrow, I halted in mid-air, aiming for one of the large, glassy eyes of the lightening-head, since I doubted I'd be able to pierce it anywhere else, aside from perhaps inside the mouth. With as much as the head was weaving around on top of the long, snake-like neck, it was very difficult to focus on. But, huge and terrifying or not, the dragon king was still a NPC with pre-programmed movements.

Lifting myself further upward, I dodged another streak of lightening, and intently watched as it prepared itself for a third attack.

Dip its head to the ground, snap with its mouth at the warriors, swipe both feet in turn, lift the head again while the other two heads swooped downward to take its place, open its mouth, pause for a second to charge, blast electricity at me, repeat…

I released my arrow after watching the head bob about for a moment, and smiled in relief as I struck my target. The dragon roared angrily, and the lightening-head looked up at me with one bleeding eye closed tight, and opened its mouth. I let myself fall several dozen feet, and the electricity flew harmlessly over my head to blast a portion of the mountain away.

Dodging the larger pieces of debris falling from the mountain, I ignored the smaller bits raining down on me and pulled out another arrow, watching as the head prepared itself again. My second attack missed, but my third managed to take out the other eye with the same method. Now blinded, the head swung around in the air, randomly blasting lightening all over the place, not just at me.

Readjusting my position, I got a bit closer to it and shot two arrows into its mouth, cutting off the wild electrical attacks. Once the perpetual lightening stopped, several of the warriors dashed forward over the broken, scorched ground and began to attack it again while the others kept the rest of the dragon busy. I relocated myself again, preparing to attack the ice-head.

A sudden blast of heat from below lifted me upward slightly, and I watched as the fire-head belched out a very large amount of smoking lava. I inwardly groaned as I saw that Prince was right in the path of the rushing liquid, looking extremely worried as he got cut off from the rest of the warriors, who were all running in the other direction, heading for higher ground.

Hurrying toward him as his small patch of not-lava-covered ground got steadily smaller, I put my bow away and reached out my arms, feeling somewhat exasperated at how much like Dib he seemed. Confidently rushing head-long into fights and sticking himself in bad situations…

I grabbed Prince before the lava could reach his boots, and frantically struggled to lift us both into the air. I'd long-since grown accustomed to carrying Dib's weight, but Prince was nearly as tall as I was, and had much heavier armor, besides. I was very glad I'd decided to use the majority of my skill points on strength the last time I'd leveled up. And Ugly Wolf's boost certainly helped quite a bit. I really didn't know just how useful having a priest was until now.

"WHA?" Prince oh-so-nicely screamed into my ear as he clung to me, looking wildly over my shoulder where the dragon was roaring in frustration over its prey escaping, rather than getting roasted. "Gui—I mean, Aeolus!"

I rolled my eyes at his mistake, and tightened my grip around him. As if Gui would somehow sprout wings and come to his rescue. Then again, Gui probably would have if he'd been able, or perhaps he would just fall face-first into the river of lava to use himself as a bridge for Prince to get to safety. The Chivalrous Gui aside, I was surprised that Wicked had let Prince get separated from the others, especially in such a dangerous situation.

"Where shall I set you down?" I asked, ignoring Prince's bewildered expression over me appearing seemingly out of nowhere. Had he really not noticed that I was there until just now?

He shifted in my arms to run his eyes over the area. "Over there!" He pointed his dao at a spot near the dragon's stomping and slashing front feet.

Of course he'd pick _there_, of all places it looked the most dangerous.

"You'd better not get me eaten," I grumbled, reluctantly doing as he asked. I flew us over, sending many cautious glances at the last two heads, though they were very busy attacking the other players, and soared toward the enormous claw-covered feet.

My eyes widened in horror when I saw an all too familiar-looking blond head disappear into the fray near the ice-head. Prematurely throwing Prince in the general direction of the feet, I flew as fast as I could toward Dib instead. Heart pounding wildly, I watched as the ice-head crashed to the ground in a flurry of melting ice chips and steam as it was defeated at last. What if he'd been caught underneath when it fell? What if it had eaten him before it died? Why didn't he listen to me?

I felt somewhat relieved when Dib's little face popped up into view again as he attempted to scramble on top of the fallen head. He noticed me flying toward him, and shot me an extremely guilty expression. I grabbed him while I tried to land on top of the head, but slipped off as the head was unexpectedly covered in a thin layer of ice, which, being _ice_, didn't agree with my momentum. We landed on the ashy ground in a crumpled heap.

"Ow, Al…" Dib muttered as I hurriedly lifted myself off him, and he rubbed the back of his head, wincing slightly. "I know it's slippery up there, but did you really have to crash into me like that?"

"I'm sorry! Are you okay?" I asked frantically, yanking him toward me again as he made to stand up. I forcefully turned him around, inspecting him for injuries. "You didn't get hurt, right?"

He pulled away indignantly and shook his head. "I'm fine, geeze!"

Heaving a sigh of relief, I nodded and stood up. Feeling as though my eyebrows were permanently stuck together, I frowned down at him and waved a hand toward where I'd put him earlier. "Why didn't you stay over there like I told you to do?"

"I said I wanted to fight!" he snapped, crossing his arms.

"You could have been killed by this stupid dragon!" I yelled, emphasizing my words with kicks at the dead dragon head behind me.

Dib suddenly pushed me backward, looking seriously angry and very unlike how he had earlier during his immature tantrum. "So could you have, flying off and leaving me behind, you jerk! I'm a higher level than you are, anyway, so don't get all uppity! If anyone was in danger, it was _you_ when you got right in the way of that lava to grab _Prince_!"

"I'm not getting uppity!" I roared. "I was just worried about you!"

"Well!" he snarled, shoving me again and stomping off in the direction of the others as they brought down the last dragon head with a resounding crash. "You don't have to be! I can take care of myself without your protection, thank you very much!" He paused briefly and glared at me over his shoulder. "Stop treating me like a little kid."

My face flushed in anger, and I barely managed to hold myself back from letting my furious retorts spill out. If he didn't want me to treat him like a child, he shouldn't have acted like one this entire time. How could I not worry about him when he was so reckless?

I watched silently for a moment as he turned away from me and hurried over to the others, and then I launched off the ground, not wanting to stay there any longer. I hadn't meant to be so over-protective, but I just didn't want him to get hurt. His words had made me feel very unwanted there, so he could go kill dragons by himself or whatever he wanted to do. I didn't have to be present if he wanted to go around training with the teams instead of me so badly.

Flying out of the smoke-filled crater, I headed back toward Star City, wordlessly fuming to myself the whole way. Rather than going all the way to the city, I let myself down in a wooded area within sight of the city gates. Settling down on top of one of the trees, I looked down at my hands and frowned again. They were covered in gray ash, as was probably the rest of me.

I didn't bother to try to clean myself off, and instead stared at the distant mountains, wondering how long it would take for them to finish their training session and return to the city. They probably weren't going to come back for a few days yet.

Being alone all of the sudden made me feel as though I'd reverted back to my nights spent playing Second Life by myself before I met Dib. I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to go find something to kill to pass the time, or if I wanted to go to the city to find something to do, or if I should just sit there at the top of the tree and waste away, wondering if Dib was having more fun in a large group than he had been with just me. He was much more outgoing than I was, after all, and I supposed he would prefer being around people more often than the infrequent city-trips we had between our periods of training.

My stomach twisted unpleasantly when I wondered if he'd even noticed I wasn't there anymore.

I hadn't meant to belittle him or anything. But I wondered if that was even worse; being completely oblivious to my own actions. If that was the case, I wondered how many times I'd unknowingly hurt his feelings in the past. I'd been so focused on trying to keep my father happy so he wouldn't notice anything, I'd neglected everything else.

Leaning against the rough tree trunk to wait, I closed my eyes and hoped I hadn't just driven away my only friend.


	16. Broken Silence

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note –**__ Is it weird that I didn't notice until quite a while later how Gui-like I made Al for a moment there during the last chapter? That was completely unintentional. xD Well, they are brothers, so I suppose it's to be expected. *making excuses*_

* * *

Two days passed in deafening silence and oppressive lethargy as I stayed in my little patch of trees just outside Star City while I waited impatiently for the Odd Squad and Dark Phantom to finish their training session. Other than killing the moles I'd stumbled on wandering around the dark, star-lit woods, and running the other night's events over in my mind, I had absolutely nothing to do in my solitude.

Dib hadn't even messaged me after I'd left, which made me all the more afraid that he enjoyed their company more than mine. Not that I'd messaged him, either. I'd opened a messaging window more than a few times, but was too scared of the thought of him yelling at me again to actually say anything. But in a way, waiting for him to come back so we could speak face-to-face was even worse than trying to apologize to him in a PM for my thoughtlessness.

When I was starting to contemplate flying back to the mountains to find Dib, I spotted he and the others approaching while I was circling over the scraggly little wood out of boredom, because I'd run out of arrows and didn't want to go back into Star City even for a moment in case I missed them on their way back, regardless of how I knew that a trip to the archery shop would only take minutes and traveling from the mountains to the city took over an hour by air, and much longer by foot.

Trying to ignore the rising apprehension, I flapped toward their steadily marching figures, easily spotting Dib as he walked along beside Gui. Dropping to a grassy knoll several yards ahead of them, I pulled in my wings and stood still, fearfully watching Dib's progress over the hill. I thought for a moment that he was going to pass me by without a hint of regard for my presence, but he lifted his hand and tugged on my fingers briefly while he continued walking. Feeling extremely relieved, I fell into step beside him, barely hearing the chatter of the large group surrounding us as they compared battles and gloated over loot.

**"You shouldn't underestimate Dib so much."**

My eyes nearly fell out of my head when I heard a deep voice in my ears, coming to me through the game's messaging system. Of all the people there, he was the least likely to talk to me. Or so I'd assumed. It was more surprising since I'd been expecting Dib to say something.

**"I know it's difficult to watch, but he really enjoys fighting, regardless of the risks involved,"** Gui continued, a blank look on his face that refused to betray the fact that he was finally talking to me after giving me an eleven-year-long dose of the silent treatment. **"The only thing you can do in that sort of situation is sit back and let him have fun, even if you're about to explode with worry."**

**"Speaking from experience?" **I inquired with slight amusement, sending a glance in Prince's direction where he was talking animatedly to Lolidragon, with a very excited Meatbun bouncing about on his shoulder.

**"Quite a bit,"** Gui acknowledged with a faint sigh. **"That aside, just let him do as he pleases, rather than trying to give unwanted help. That'll only make him mad, like what happened with the dragon king."**

**"You two talked about it?" **I asked slowly, annoyed that Dib had gone to my brother with his grievances, rather than me. How was I supposed to apologize if he wasn't going to tell me how he was feeling?

**"Briefly,"** Gui affirmed, shooting my displeased expression a glance. His eyes widened slightly and he looked forward again. **"Should I not have?"**

**"I just thought… I thought he would have talked to me first,"** I responded with a shrug.

**"It's not that he didn't want to,"** Gui said quietly. **"You should know, he told me he looks up to you quite a bit. He just wanted to help and fight beside you on equal footing, not get pushed aside."**

My mood suddenly dropped into an irritable dimness at the familiar-sounding words. **"Why is it that I can empathize with his situation so easily?"** I wondered somewhat snappishly. Gui fell silent, not that I had been expecting an answer to my rhetorical question, and I ventured a small look at him. He'd gone blank again. **"I want to talk to you, you know. About****–****"**

**"I know,"** Gui interrupted in an angry tone, staring pointedly away from me. **"I know, already. You don't have to tell me."**

**"When?" **I asked.

**"I don't know,"** he answered icily.

**"Soon?"** I pressed, feeling somewhat desperate, since it seemed as though he was about to refuse to talk to me again. I felt I was getting to be rather good at accidentally making people mad at me, but at the moment, I didn't particularly care.

**"I don't know!"** Gui repeated, shooting me a fierce glare. **"You can't just pop up out of nowhere and expect me to be all ready to reminisce about our oh-so-pleasant past."**

**"It's not my fault it was without warning!"** I retorted peevishly. **"You're the one who disappeared without a trace!"**

**"And whose fault to you think **_**that**_ **is?"** With that bitter question posed, he started walking along faster, obviously to get away from me.

I let him go without protesting, and watched while he hurried up to Prince and Lolidragon, wearing a bright smile, and he effortlessly hopped into their conversation as if he'd been there the entire time. I looked down at my boots with a melancholic sigh.

At least he'd talked to me, even if we ended up fighting yet again. It looked like he was still indeed holding a deeply lodged grudge against me like I'd assumed. But that thought couldn't quite blot out my relief over how _normal_ he'd sounded. Not at all the eccentric Prince-chasing bard he often flaunted. My brother was still in there somewhere.

Dib's fingers cautiously searched for mine. I glanced at him hesitantly, and then pulled my hand out of his reach, crossing my arms over my chest. He was doing it again. First he tells me off for treating him like a child, and then he tries to hold my hand. His inconsistencies were starting to make me very angry.

"Are you mad at me?" he asked quietly after he'd let his hand drop forlornly to his side. His steps slowed, and I let mine follow suit, allowing the two teams to walk on ahead of us to give us a bit more secrecy.

"Yes, I am," I answered after a moment, not bothering to think up some way to sugar-coat my words, since, either way, it would be the same thing. "Are you?"

"Yes," he echoed with a definitive nod.

We let the silence build between us, and I finally sighed. "But I'm more mad at myself for being so hopelessly unperceptive."

"Yeah, I'm mad at that, too," Dib agreed vaguely.

"I don't know why I do it," I continued softly. "After all, I have to go through it every day. I should have the whole underestimation thing down pat and completely understood. But apparently I don't."

"Yeah," Dib agreed yet again. I shot a glare at the top of his head, wondering if he was really listening to me, or if he was just saying things whenever I paused.

"I'm sorry for losing my temper," he finally said. "And as happy as it makes me that you worry about me, you don't have to treat me like I'm made of glass. I really can fight just fine, you know."

Sighing deeply, I nodded down at him. "I won't interfere anymore."

Dib glanced up at me, and then smiled, tugging on my arm slightly. I stopped walking and faced him. "Well, you can interfere sometimes. And spoil me a little, of course. Everything in moderation, okay?"

At my faint smile, he looked away, rummaged around in his pouch for a moment, and pulled something out. "Gimme your right hand," he ordered. I lifted my hand obediently, and he took the scuffed-up silver ring—one of the drops from those poisonous slugs I'd been training on a month ago—off of my ring finger, sticking it on my index finger instead. Where it used to sit, he placed a new ring made of thin, twisting threads of gold, with small amber-colored topaz set at regular intervals along the band.

I stared at it for a moment in surprise, and then lifted my eyes to look at Dib's excited face. "Thank you."

"The dragon king dropped it. It has defensive boosts, and also magical, electricity-based capabilities like that one head used," he explained quickly, looking very hyper at my pleased response. "The others wanted you to have it as a thanks for helping bring it down and saving Prince from getting his feet fried off. And," he paused, waving me closer. Raising an eyebrow, I crouched down next to him, though the others were fairly far away by that time and couldn't possibly overhear us, even if we spoke loudly. "Gui was the one who suggested giving it to you," he whispered, a smile stretching across his face.

Mouth dropping open slightly, I glanced toward where the others were now standing on a large hilltop, waiting for us to catch up. Gui's face did look rather embarrassed.

I laughed for a moment. "I suppose I should thank him, too," I muttered with a sigh.

"It matches your gold eyes," Dib remarked, smiling wider and lifting a small hand to touch the side of my face, carefully running one finger around my left eye.

"Oh, yes. It does," I agreed, glancing down at the delicate-looking ring. That hadn't crossed my mind. While I was very careful to organize my outfits in real life so the colors matched, I didn't care very much about that in-game. As long as whatever it was I was wearing wasn't hideous and had the bonuses and stats I wanted, I wasn't particular with how it looked.

Before I could stand up again, Dib wrapped his arms around my neck and refused to let go. "Carry me!" he commanded.

I stayed in my kneeling position in the grass, and looked at the side of his head in bemusement. "Weren't you the one who just told me to stop treating you like a child? You're a grown man…" I paused with a smirk. "Well, some of the time. Anyway, you can walk by yourself."

"This'll be an exception!" Dib insisted, hopping up and down impatiently. "Come on, please? Carry me, carry me!"

Rolling my eyes, I wrapped my arms around him, and lifted him in the air as I straightened. He leaned against my chest and comfortably rested his head on my shoulder with a contented smile on his face as he closed his eyes.

"You're so inconsistent," I grumbled, taking off over the grass to rejoin the others.

"I know," he agreed with a slight yawn, pressing his forehead against my neck. He then fell asleep in my arms.

I hurried as fast as I could to catch up with the waiting teams while trying not to shake Dib too much, sending many bewildered looks toward the softly snoring boy as I went. I hadn't known people could fall asleep in-game. After all, everyone was already asleep in the real world, what would be the point of doing it in here, too? I did get slightly tired at times, but a sip of stamina potion fixed that straight away. But he had been fighting dragons for several days, so I supposed it wasn't too surprising that he was sleepy.

Walking with the others through the chill, evening air, we entered Star City again, finally stopping in the marketplace so everyone could sort through and divide the accumulated loot from the dragons. After they all went in and out of what seemed to be every single shop in the market, they had finally sold everything they wanted to sell and restocked on their supplies. Prince, Doll and several other people then announced they were hungry, so we went to one of the nearby taverns.

I watched from one side as the others dragged several of the small wooden tables together—much to the protestation of the NPC workers—to form one large table everyone could sit at. While they annoyed the waitresses, I glanced down at Dib, wondering if I should wake him. He'd definitely be angry with me if I let him sleep through a meal. But I didn't want to interrupt his sleep, either.

Carefully lowering myself into the chair Lolidragon had waved me at, I shifted Dib into a more comfortable position, and reached around him to pick up my menu the very huffy waitress had nearly thrown at me. I shot an irritated look at her as she gruffly tossed menus at the others as well, demanding that we put the furniture back the way it was before we leave.

"What are you gonna get?" Doll asked brightly from her seat on my left.

"Probably just some fruit, or a glass of water," I replied, disinterestedly running my eyes down the lengthy list of food.

Prince stared incredulously at me, as if he thought my choice of meal was completely ridiculous. "What?" He frowned and slapped his hand on top of the three-course section. "Who the heck only has a glass of water for dinner when there are all these choices to pick from?"

"I don't like eating very much." My blandly delivered answer made his face contort with shock.

"Hm, we'll have to fix that," Lolidragon decided, snatching my menu away from me and throwing it at the waitress. "Hey!" she yelled as the NPC clumsily caught the unexpectedly lobbed menu.

"No, wait," I started to protest, but Lolidragon ignored me.

"Two steak dinners with all the sides for these guys!" she called, waving a hand at Dib and I.

"Wait, I don't–"

"Oh!" Prince enthusiastically exclaimed, staring down at the pictures. "I want that, too!" he announced, handing his menu away. "With the pasta meal set, as well!"

Ugly Wolf sent me an apologetic look as I watched helplessly, feeling like I was getting washed away by their overwhelming energy, while the others made their choices and the waitress left. I didn't want an entire dinner. I'd never be able to finish the whole thing, especially not with every single side dish they offered, as Lolidragon oh-so-helpfully ordered for me. I probably still had that honey bread in my pouch somewhere from when Dib and I last ate in Star City.

Clutching Dib tighter against me and wishing he was awake so I had backup, I stared guardedly around at the others as they settled themselves down. As if on cue, Dib let out a sigh against my neck, scrunching his eyebrows up for a moment before his eyes cracked open blearily. "So loud," he muttered, rubbing his face sleepily as he sat up slightly and glanced about the group in mild surprise. "Oh, is it dinnertime?" he asked me drowsily through a yawn.

"It is," I affirmed with a nod.

"What'd you get me?" he questioned, looking much more awake at the promise of food. "Pie?"

"_Lolidragon_," I corrected, frowning somewhat before continuing, "got you and I steak dinners and all the sides. Not a pie, but we can get one of those, too, if you want it," I added.

He laughed in amusement for a moment and sent Lolidragon a smile. "Ah, looks like I finally have help in my ongoing mission, Make Al Eat More Food."

"Did you really have to make a mission out of it?"

"He always eats like that?" Doll asked with wide eyes as she turned in her chair to face us. At Dib's nod, she frowned and made a tutting noise. "That's no good!" she scolded, suddenly standing on top of her chair so she could look down at me.

I forced an amused smile to stay off my face when I wondered if she was also an adult like Dib who decided to shrink herself for whatever reason, or if she was just really tiny. Well, not exactly _tiny_ but more along the lines of small, seeing as how she was nearly a foot taller than Dib. I supposed her puffy dress also helped in terms of making her look bigger.

"I thought maybe you'd just eaten before we arrived, or something!"

"No," I denied, shaking my head slightly, "it's been quite a while since I last had anything to eat."

"How do you _survive_?" Prince cut in, once again looking at me in utter disbelief. "I always bring food with me everywhere I go, just in case I get hungry!"

"Which he always does," Yu Lian added, smirking.

"Okay, quit picking on Aeolus," Ugly Wolf said reprovingly to Prince and Doll. "Not everyone has a black hole for a stomach like you two." His eyes flickered up to Meatbun who was sitting on Prince's head. "Three," he corrected himself.

"His Highness needs to keep up his strength so he can gallantly cut down all enemies in his path!" Gui declared, shooting Prince an admiring smile.

"Exactly!" Doll yelled, balling her hands together into fists and suddenly looking extremely determined about something. "We have to eat a lot so we can keep the forces of evil at bay!"

Somehow, eating dinner had become a method of fighting crime.

I sighed in resignation, and Dib rested his head against my shoulder again, patting one hand on my chest and chuckling slightly. "Don't worry, Al. I'll eat whatever you can't finish so the money doesn't go to waste."

"Are you really able to eat that much?" I questioned skeptically. "There are around ten sides on the menu here."

"Twelve!" Doll corrected.

"I can," Dib assured. "Running around so much while training takes up a lot of energy, you know. I've gotta eat a lot." I made a noise of concession, though I still wasn't sure why he didn't just use stamina potions. They were so much faster for energy restoration than eating a meal.

He yawned again, closing his eyes. "Wake me up when the food arrives. And don't forget to order a pie for me, too. An apple one."

"Okay."

"Aeolus, would you like to join us for training again after we're done eating?" Ugly Wolf invited cheerily. "We're going to go back to the mountains to train on ice trolls."

My eyes widened and I shot Gui a cautious look. He was still pretending I didn't exist.

The beastman followed my gaze and smiled warmly. "Don't worry, you won't get in the way. You were a big help taking down that dragon king," he complimented. "We couldn't get many clear shots until you joined us. Your positioning helped us correct ours so we could attack more effectively. And Dib was quite good, too, when we attacked it after it respawned."

"You battled that horrendous thing twice?" I questioned dubiously.

"Eight times in total, actually. It drops a lot of good loot," Prince explained. "It's pretty risky, but the reward is worth it. Plus it's good experience, and we need all of that we can get for the Grand Melee next month."

"So, want to come?" Ugly Wolf repeated, looking between the snoring Dib and I expectantly. "Dib already told us he doesn't mind."

I hesitantly looked at Gui once more. I didn't really want to go with them, since being there would definitely annoy him further, and that in turn would make him want to talk to me even less, but if I stayed out of his way, I supposed it would be okay.

"Yes, thank you," I quietly accepted, nodding to the wolf.


	17. Companionship

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

Ever since Dib and I first met, he had been using me as a method of transportation. Infrequently at first, only when we were traveling long distances and I offered to carry him, or if he needed an escape route from some monster or another. But he gradually got more and more demanding as we got to know each other better, having me carry him wherever we went, even if he was perfectly capable of walking on his own. Not that I minded, really. After all, if we walked everywhere rather than flying, it would take quite a bit longer.

Plus there were obvious Squishing Hazards if we had to go through the crowded shopping districts of the towns. Being rather tall, I had no problems pushing through streams of people if I so needed, but Dib—a teensy weensy halfling—had no such advantage. Due to his high agility, he could maneuver the less-dense crowds on his own with little trouble, but very busy places were rather dangerous for him.

Plus carrying him didn't do much to my stamina levels—he and his relatively light-weight armor weren't heavy. And after so long of letting him ride on my shoulders, I'd gotten used to it.

But I hadn't predicted that my burdens would multiply when Dib and I went training again with the Odd Squad.

As we left the restaurant after dinner, we parted ways with Dark Phantom to train separately. The majority of their teammates had looked very relieved over not having to be around the Odd Squad anymore, but Wicked seemed quite reluctant to leave Prince with Gui, regardless of the fact that it wasn't going to just be those two alone.

While we exited the city and hurried over the dark path toward the mountains, I was wishing Dib and I had gone with Wicked's team rather than Prince's. Or perhaps gone to train just us two, instead of in a group. But Dib still looked so excited over training with teams, I consented to staying in their unusual company for a bit longer.

However, training with the Odd Squad didn't mean I was comfortable around them just yet. It took me ages to get used to having Dib around me constantly, I wasn't going to be used to six new people in only a few days. But, Gui aside, they seemed just fine with me. A little too fine with me, I discovered, when Doll asked if I would carry her as well while we traveled to the section of the mountains where the chosen ice trolls resided.

Did I have some sort of tiny person magnet? Why couldn't she summon a skeleton to carry her if she refused to walk by herself? Why not ask Ugly Wolf, who was much burlier than I, and more familiar with her? Didn't she have two perfectly good legs?

Looking at her expectant smile, I could hardly refuse. I didn't particularly want to carry her, but I also didn't want to make her mad. After all, didn't women usually have some sort of complex over their weight? What if she thought I was calling her fat? Not that I thought she was, extra weight to carry or not. I suddenly wondered if that was why Jiao had looked rather annoyed with me for telling her over our dinner to eat as much as she wanted while I only had a few suo and water.

Fat or skinny, I found myself carrying the little girl in my arms while Dib was sitting on my shoulders and Meatbun was riding on my head yet again. Perhaps my main reason for giving in was for the sake of keeping myself in good light with Gui, but I supposed it was also because I simply didn't want to cause problems. Dib liked them, therefore I was determined to like them as well, in one way or another. What else could I do? Skulk in the background the entire time? Uncomfortable with them or not, socializing seemed a better option than being excluded yet again for my solitary attitude, as I had been so many times in the past.

"Aeolus," Ugly Wolf called softly, looking down at me with a concerned expression on his hairy face. His eyes flickered from Doll, to Dib, to Meatbun, back to me, and he gave a sigh.

"Yes?" I asked, attempting to resist the urge to look up at him, since that would probably cause Meatbun to fall off my head and get angry at me again. The bun had only just stopped glaring at me as if it was all my fault he was separated from Prince that day in the marketplace—I was fairly certain that Meatbun was under the impression that I'd bun-napped him—and we were now on, not good, I supposed, but neutral terms with one another.

Never had I thought that I would attempt to gain a meat bun's favor. Then again, during the past few months I'd been doing a lot of things I'd thought I would never do. Not that trying to make friends with a bun of any sort had ever even occurred to me before…

"If your arms get tired, you really don't have to carry Doll," Ugly Wolf pointed out hesitantly.

"He doesn't mind, I'm sure!" Doll decided for me with no hesitation whatsoever.

Smiling slightly at how confident she sounded, I carefully shook my head. "I'm fine, I have an absurd amount of stamina for when I have to fly, after all. And she's very light," I assured, and allowed myself a small look of gratitude up at the beastman. "But thank you for your concern."

Ugly Wolf gave a short nod, and turned back to where we were walking with a more relaxed air. I often found myself being very much at ease with the enormous wolf, regardless of his rather fierce appearance. Next to having Dib with me, he was probably one of the main reasons I felt slightly less overwhelmed with the rambunctious group of people. Other than being somewhat gullible at times, he was one of the most normal and calm members of the Odd Squad. I could see why they referred to him as "Wolf-gē" rather than his in-game name. He was very kind, considerate and older-brotherly.

Now if only I could get Gui to let me refer to him as my brother.

Lolidragon heaved a sigh from my other side, and glanced at me with a slight frown. "I'm still not used to this," she announced, looking me up and down. I refrained from telling her that the feeling was mutual, and settled for returning her frown with a blank stare. "Other than your eye color, you just look too much like Gui to make this seem normal. You're even both archers."

"I'm a bard, not an archer!" Gui corrected hotly, glancing over his shoulder at Lolidragon with an annoyed expression. "They're completely different!"

"You shoot things with _arrows_ from your guqin, while singing," she added with a smirk. "Big difference."

Gui looked extremely offended and turned back around as he crossed his arms. "So what if I shoot things?" he grumbled. I tried very hard to keep myself from feeling hurt by his reluctance to be even the slightest bit similar to me.

"Can you sing, too?" Doll asked up to me, eyes shining with curiosity.

Was it really so important to them to find affinities between my brother and I? Why was singing even relevant? I didn't have to, or want to, for that matter, go around serenading monsters while killing them. That would do nothing but hinder my sneaky attack methods.

"I can, I suppose. Not that I would choose to do so," I added onto my reluctant answer, wishing the conversation would go in a different direction and away from comparing me with Gui. I'd had quite enough of that growing up. I didn't want more, especially not now when I was trying to patch things up with him. Not that they were trying to be malicious, but it was still a very touchy subject for us both.

Doll gave my diffident attitude and I a disappointed frown, and settled back into my arms with a sigh as if she'd been expecting me to demonstrate my singing abilities right then and there just because she'd asked if I was able.

"Other than that, they're pretty much complete opposites," Prince observed, and then added under his breath, "Thank goodness."

"A demon and an angel," Doll said, sounding somewhat amused.

"Flamboyant and reserved," Yu Lian continued.

"Stubborn and willing," Prince added.

"Impertinent and polite," Dib said, seeming to be all-too-happy to join in with their verbal thrashing.

"Annoying and–"

"Stop picking on me!" Gui whined, interrupting whatever it was that Doll was about to label me with. The team's flow of teasing slipped into bursts of laughter at Gui's indignant face. And there I noticed another glaring difference between my brother and I. He was so good-natured all of the time with his friends, taking their jokes and teasing in stride. I wondered if I could be like that with a group of people. I felt as though it would simply make me angry. I was too serious, I reminded myself yet again. Often too serious. Dib did tease me from time to time, but definitely not to this extent.

As the others slowly quieted their laughter, Dib wrapped his arms around my head and leaned forward. "But whatever the similarities and differences are, Al is Al, and Gui is Gui," he murmured into my ear, and I smiled, giving a grateful, one-handed tug to one of his tiny booted feet dangling over my shoulders.

"Hey! May I call you 'Al', too?" Doll asked, looking up at me eagerly. "It's easier than 'Aeolus'."

In amusement, I took a breath to answer, but Dib interrupted before I could agree. "NO!" he yelled, suddenly sounding very angry. Doll and the others, surprised at his abrupt and very violent denial, turned and looked up at him in alarm as he tightened his grip on me, smacking my forehead with both hands and making me flinch. "That's _my_ nickname for him! No one else is allowed to use it!"

Doll glared at him. "It's his choice if he wants to let me! Not yours!"

"It is too my choice, 'cause I'm the one who came up with 'Al'! It's mine!" Dib countered heatedly, yanking hard on my earring and firmly commanding, "Al, don't let her!"

Silence fell as everyone stared hard at me, waiting for my opinion on the matter. Glancing awkwardly about myself and wishing they would stop looking at me, I attempted to come up with an answer. I really didn't care either way, but if Dib didn't like it…

"Please, don't," I requested quietly, giving Doll an apologetic smile.

She stuck out her lower lip in a pout. "What, he gets special treatment?"

"Of course." My prompt answer sent Dib into triumphant chuckles as he finally loosened his grip from around my squished skull. Doll, obviously displeased with my decision, made little huffing noises as she glowered into space, but didn't attempt to argue any further. I hadn't known choosing something to call me with was so important.

The others finally stopped looking back to us, and we continued on across the rocky ground about the roots of the mountains we were finally entering. Prince quickly took the lead and rushed on ahead, followed closely by Gui and Lolidragon. Though Yu Lian yelled at them—namely Prince—to come back before they got far. Apparently the young elf was a bit directionally challenged, and shouldn't be let out of sight.

Rather than scaling the mountains, we took a different path through the gullies in between, far below where the dragons lived, though every now and again we could hear a faint, echoing roar from hundreds of feet above our heads.

Everyone fell silent as we walked, having to keep our concentration to where we were going. The ground was covered in many loose stones, and there were spontaneous, gaping chasms here and there, sometimes hidden under a shelf of rock that would give way and swallow us up were any pressure applied.

Not particularly wanting to fall to whatever most-likely-horrible death may have been awaiting us at the bottom, I focused everything on my footing, though it was hard to see around Doll, as we progressed to the caves under the mountains where the ice trolls were, tightly clutching Doll against me and hoping Dib wouldn't slip off my shoulders if I tripped.

Meatbun apparently had some sort of flying technique, so I wasn't at all worried about him.

After almost falling down for what seemed like the millionth heart-stopping-time, I frowned and paused in my steps. "Is the entrance to the caves much farther?" I called ahead to the others, who were all having a much easier time walking, since they weren't carrying two players and a meat bun.

"Nope!" Prince answered confidently as he waved a hand in a very vague way. "Just around this next bend. I think…"

Giving a wondering glance to Ugly Wolf, I waited until he nodded at me and smirked slightly. "Dib, would you hold Meatbun for a bit?" I asked, turning my head a little now that I knew the entrance really was where Prince had said it was.

"Are you gonna fly?"

"Yes, I can't see where I'm going very well," I explained in a mumble. Dib carefully slipped off my shoulders, onto my back, and then took the bun off my head. Extending my wings after he was settled, I glanced down at Doll. "Try not to move, please." At her excited nod, I shifted her in my arms to get a better grip without squishing her, and lifted all four of us off the ground. Flying with some difficulty, because I wasn't used to the awkward load or vertical position, we made our way over the heads of the others.

"HEY!" Lolidragon suddenly screamed from behind us. I probably would have jumped in surprise if I wasn't in the air already. Slowly turning us around, I shot her an annoyed look as her call echoed all around the chasm. "That's not fair!" she snapped indignantly, pointing a finger at us.

"I was unaware that reaching the cave was a contest," I countered, giving her an amused smile. "Now then," I breathed, continuing onward and ignoring her continued yells, though it was rather difficult to do so as they repeated themselves several times reverberating off the mountains. I was glad there wasn't a lot of snow in this particular section of the range, or else we would have been buried in an avalanche a long time ago.

A few minutes later, the large, gaping entrance to the ice caves came into view from around the side of the mountain. Giving one more burst of energy, I beat my wings quickly for a few seconds to cover the last stretch, and lightly let us down to the ground, standing still as Dib scrambled up my back to sit on my shoulders again.

Afterward, I gently set Doll on her feet and she shot me a triumphant smile twirling her necromancer's staff around her fingers for a moment. "We win!" she chortled, tapping the staff's end on the rocky, frost-covered ground. "ONWARD, FOR–" she began, unexpectedly attempting to rush into the cave, but I grabbed her around the middle before she could enter.

"I think we should wait for the others," I suggested, picking her up again so she couldn't escape.

"Come on, Al! Let's beat them inside!" Dib urged playfully, tugging lightly on a lock of my hair. I humored him by taking a single step into the cave's entrance. "That's not what I meant!"

"I'm not going any farther until they get here," I said with finality, feeling rather protective of the two child-like, trouble-seeking players. "It will only be a moment, anyway."

"Time is money!" Doll insisted. "That's what Yu Lian says! They'll understand, so let's go!"

"And they will also understand if we wait. No means no."

"Most of the time," Dib added. Even without being able to see him, I felt sure he was smirking at me. But regardless of their continued imploring, I refused to move.

True to my word, it barely took five minutes for the others to scramble onto the wide ledge where we were standing in wait. Ignoring Lolidragon's outraged expression, I turned around and at last walked fully inside, glancing about the wet, ice-covered walls cautiously as we went. They looked like they were coated in a thick layer of blue-tinted glass. A very pretty sight, but not one I particularly wanted to stop and appreciate.

"Do we just walk around until we stumble on an ice troll, or do they have some sort of gathering spot?" I asked quietly over my shoulder, trying to keep my voice low in case any trolls were nearby. Although, while I was doing my best to keep silent, no one else seemed to share my caution. They were all talking loudly to one another and stomping along like they were still outside.

"Mm," Prince hummed for a moment, hurrying forward to walk beside me. "The low-leveled ones kinda just litter the tunnels, so there are those we can fight if we come across any, but there's also a main room deeper in the mountain where the high-leveled trolls and the troll king hang out."

"Is that what we're aiming for?" I continued, hoping he wasn't going to say yes.

He shot me a mischievous smile and nodded, much to my annoyance. "Of course! The troll king drops the best stuff, after all."

"I see," I murmured faintly, wondering why he was so eager to fight something that was most likely going to be horrible. But I hoped it wouldn't be as bad as the dragon king. I'd only been around that monstrosity for fifteen minutes or so when I helped take it down, and it had made me permanently paranoid that every roar I heard while walking to the caves was the dragon king coming for vengeance against us. Whether or not a NPC was actually capable of plotting revenge was another matter.

"What sort of attacks does the troll king use?" I inquired after a moment. If I really had to fight the stupid boss monster, I wanted to be as prepared as possible, since I'd flown head-long into the dragon king fight without having any idea what was going on, or what to do. Unfortunately, I doubted my new ring and its electric attacks would be much use in this particular ice-filled situation.

"It can use attacks from all three sides of the combat triangle," Prince began. "The magic attacks are all ice based, blasts of ice that can freeze players for a certain number of minutes, and spontaneous blizzards that limit visibility while it regenerates its health points.

"As for range, it throws rocks, chunks of ice and whatever else it can get its hands on—it even threw another troll at me, one time—and lastly it can punch and bite and kick, obviously, and it has a giant spiked club it swings around," he listed, ticking off each attack on his fingers while a cloud of his breath in the cold air nearly made him disappear from view. "Probably other stuff, too," he ended with a shrug.

"Any weaknesses? Places I should specifically shoot…?" I furthered, trying very hard to keep my feet moving forward when they suddenly felt like they were attempting to turn me around. Dib's cowardice seemed to be rubbing off on me. Or maybe it was just because these people seemed to aim for the deadliest monsters possible, while I aimed for ones I could take out while hiding, regardless of whether or not they dropped lots of expensive loot.

"Sunlight is any troll's major weakness," he supplied, "but since we're, well, _under a mountain_, we use fire instead. You could light your arrows using Doll's flaming skeletons, or ask Yu Lian to light them with her magic.

"I'm not really sure where you should shoot, though. Gui just kind of… shoots everything. Maybe the stomach, or legs. Their heads are pretty thick, so you should ignore those. Just as a warning," he added, holding up a finger, "they sometimes charge you head-first. Step to one side when they do, they probably won't notice that you got out of the way. They usually crash into the wall and stupidly deal damage on themselves."

Laughing slightly at the thought, I nodded at him briefly and hoped I'd be able to retain all of that information for later. "Thank you for the explanation. I should be able–"

"Prince," Gui called in a cold tone, which easily outmatched our icy surroundings. I didn't dare turn to look at him, since his frosty voice alone told me what sort of expression he was making at that moment. The unspoken jealousy in that one word nearly made my blood freeze.

"What?" Prince lightly replied, not seeming to notice anything.

"Come here, please," Gui requested, softer than before, but not any less murderous. "You should look at the map of the tunnels."

"What?" Prince repeated in annoyance, but paused to wait for Gui to catch up. However, I didn't dare stop. "I just looked at it earlier!"

"You could have looked at it two seconds ago and you'd still get lost," Lolidragon remarked with a chuckle. Her intentions to lighten the suddenly very dark atmosphere were obvious. I kept walking as Prince grumbled a retort, and tried my hardest to calm my pounding heart.

Love certainly had the potential to make people frightening.

"That was scary," Dib whispered over my shoulder.

I nodded in response, not trusting myself to form words just yet. I wondered if my conversation with Prince had just smashed all my efforts to stay on Gui's good side. It wasn't as though I could ignore the elf—Gui would probably get angry at me for being rude to him—but apparently I wasn't allowed to talk to him either.

All I'd done was ask about a troll, it wasn't as though I'd been flirting with him. In fact, I was fairly certain that talking about trolls left a person no room whatsoever to flirt in the slightest. Why would I want to flirt with a man, anyway? Or anyone else—aside from Jiao, I supposed—for that matter?

Sighing, I continued along the ice-coated tunnel, hoping I could figure out a way to make amends, hopefully sooner, rather than later. It was getting increasingly difficult to hold myself back from demanding an audience with Gui. I knew that would only make things worse, but waiting for it to happen was even more anxiety-inducing.

Prince suddenly flashed past me with a slight laugh and an eager gleam in his red eyes. With bewilderment over what it was he was doing, I followed his swift progress visually rather than trying to keep up on foot, feeling increasingly confused until I noticed what it was he was running toward.

He pulled out his black dao almost faster than I could see, and ran it through an unsuspecting troll that had been blending in with the tunnel wall several yards ahead of us.

Now that I had time to observe his fighting, I could finally understand what Dib had told me when he described the "horror movie style" Adventurers' Tournament matches the Odd Squad had been in.

Dark blood spattered all over the walls and floor—and all over Prince himself, not that he seemed to care—as he lopped off the troll's limbs one by one, a cruel smile dancing on his lips the whole while. The echoing shrieks of pain and anger coupled with the blunt noises of sword meeting bone made an all new set of goosebumps form on my skin, joining the ones from the chilly air blowing through the tunnel.

When the troll finally collapsed, Prince gave a satisfied sigh and flicked a bit of blood off his dao before sheathing it and crouching down amongst scattered, hacked-up body parts and piles of bloody organs to pick up the loot the pitiful creature dropped after its abrupt and very violent demise.

The whole process had taken a matter of seconds, but somehow I felt as though everything had gone in slow motion. In my daze, I wasn't sure if I wanted to feel impressed at Prince's courage and fighting skills, or to feel sorry for the troll. Feeling sick was also a rather tempting choice.

A hand on my shoulder made me jump slightly, and I turned, wide-eyed, to look down at Lolidragon. She stared at me for a moment, and started laughing at my horrified expression. I stood still while she slapped my arm a few times and sighed deeply, chuckling off and on. "I know. It takes time to get used to Prince in his 'Blood Elf' mode."

"Stop _calling_ me that!" Prince snapped, his voice reverberating noisily through the air as he stood up and shot Lolidragon a frown before starting off down the tunnel again, wiping a bit of troll blood off his cheek. Taking a shaky breath, I reluctantly followed after.

Several hours later, we'd managed to kill the troll king twice, and countless other trolls as well. Perhaps Dib had been correct in thinking it was better to train with a team, since we'd gotten quite a bit more experience and loot than if it had been just us two.

Though Gui had looked as if he'd been trying to kill me with his eyes the entire time, I'd actually enjoyed myself. The team's friendliness was quite heart-warming. Unlike my previous experiences with groups of people in real life where everyone treated me like some sort of glorious deity simply because of my forced social status, the Odd Squad, like Dib, had accepted me as an equal and a friend.

Companionship, something I'd thought I would never need, had suddenly become like air to me.


	18. Walk to the Garden

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note – **Thus enters (main) OC's numbers four, five, and six. (Accidentally, like everything else my whimsical self writes.)_

* * *

I was nervous. Extremely nervous. Was it normal for a heart to beat so fast when all a person is doing is sitting in their car, staring at a gate? It wasn't as though some unspeakable torment was waiting for me just inside, like was always awaiting me at my own home. But the thought of driving inside was still terrifying. After all, Jiao was in there. Somehow, at the moment, the thought of talking to her was even more intimidating than trying to work up the courage to talk to Gui Wen. We'd gotten along just fine over dinner, but what if I did something stupid?

Drawing my eyebrows together determinedly, I pulled into the drive to her house after simply staring at it for several minutes. The man who had been standing in wait to open the gate for me looked extremely relieved that I'd finally moved.

As I pulled through the now-open gate, I scolded myself for being so terrified. My habit of over-thinking everything was definitely something I had to work on eliminating. If not, I knew I would only live the rest of my life complicating even the simplest things. Not that meeting my fiancée was simple. But not something to be scared of.

I hoped.

Pulling my keys out of the ignition once I'd parked, I slowly undid my seatbelt, and looked up. A tiny grin tugged at my mouth while I opened the car door. She was already there, waiting. The thought that someone had actually looked forward to meeting me for a frivolous visit, someone who had no ulterior motives for spending time with me—like those who wanted a promotion or something of that sort—made me somewhat confused, and unspeakably happy.

"Hello!" she greeted, a bright smile lighting up her pretty features while I stopped in front of her and tucked my keys away into my jacket pocket. The morning sunlight shining down on us only added to her glowing look. Casual denim jeans and a lace-lined white shirt that hugged her very nicely had taken the place of the dress she'd been wearing last time we met, and she had her hair tied up out of the way in a small bun. It gave her a much more relaxed feel.

My face couldn't help but reflect hers. "Hello," I responded somewhat hesitantly. Her energy was a bit overwhelming, coming at me all at once. A small wish filled me that I'd been able to have more time to compose myself before she'd suddenly appeared.

In an attempt to gather myself together under her warm gaze, I glanced around my surroundings for the first time. My eyes widened in disbelief, and I looked back to Jiao. "This… this is…"

"Hm?" Jiao followed where I'd been staring, and then shot me a questioning raise of one of her thin eyebrows.

I vaguely waved a hand at the "garden" beside us, sprawling across the entire span of her family's mansion's front grounds, and looked to curve around the sides as well. The garden looked like it was out of a painting. A traditional-style garden complete with many pavilions, neatly-trimmed trees, little ponds and waterfalls, and even a wooden bridge or two.

Over our dinner when Jiao had said that she gardened as a hobby, this wasn't what I had pictured. Maybe she wanted to surprise me, but she certainly hadn't led me to believe she made something like that.

"You are very skilled," I finally commented, eyes glued to one of the larger pavilions, wondering how long it had taken her to plan the landscape out. Surely she hadn't built that…

She gave me an amused smile, and took my arm. "I did not do all this," she corrected, leading me toward the house. "I tend it from time to time, but this garden has been here for generations. My garden, the one I told you about, is at the back of the house, out of sight."

"Oh, I see," I said with a nod, glancing back to the breath-taking garden as we stepped up to the front door. "Why is it there?"

Jiao frowned slightly and looked like she was about to answer, but the door was abruptly flung open from the inside by one of the house staff. Trying to calm myself down from the sudden, unexpected movement, I stepped inside with her and paused. There was a man in a black suit, who looked to be about my age, waiting in the entry way and glaring at me.

Why was there always someone glaring at me?

"Delun-dàgē." Jiao's quiet, clipped call almost sounded as though she was reprimanding the man.

After a moment, his sharp black eyes snapped to her, and immediately softened into a smile. "Welcome home, Jiao-mèi," he greeted happily, looking like a completely different person than the murderous man who had been standing there seconds ago. I wondered why he was greeting her in the first place when I was the one arriving.

"…Thank you," she answered, sounding as though she was wondering the same thing, and took a step closer to me, putting her hand on my arm.

Refraining from flinching under his renewed death stare, I gave him a short bow. I didn't particularly want to expose the back of my neck to the man, but I knew it wouldn't do me any good to be impolite to Jiao's family members. I would most definitely die a very painful and slow death if I made even the slightest mistake with any of them, especially her parents.

"I am Min Zian. It is a pleasure to meet you," I offered with a polite smile.

"I am Lin Delun. Jiao-mèi's _older brother_," he informed snappishly, moving his attention to Jiao's hand and where it was resting.

"Where is Chen-dàsăo?" Jiao pulled me away from her brother's rigid form and into the next room. I would have felt relieved, but he followed us a moment later, his narrowed eyes full of suspicion. It seemed that Delun was an over-protective sibling "to the extreme," as Heng would say.

"Upstairs. She is taking tea with Mei Rong-mèi in the library," he supplied, crossing his arms and huffing slightly.

"Would you like some tea before we go to the garden?" she asked me, ignoring Delun's frown of utter disapproval from his spot near the door.

"Yes, please," I agreed, smiling as best I could under the oppressive stare. It was getting difficult to remain calm, but I knew it would be better to meet the rest of her family before escaping outside where Delun hopefully wouldn't be. The way he was relentlessly following us across the room, I doubted he'd let Jiao and I go outside alone. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to have me thrown out of the house.

But I was slightly put at ease when Jiao didn't take her hand away from me as we walked.

After climbing a set of stairs and going down a few airy hallways, Jiao opened a large door, and revealed a large, brightly lit room full of bookshelves. She led me to a round table nearby in the center of the room where two women, one holding a little girl, were sitting, chatting to one another over a tea set. They looked up and smiled as they saw the three of us arrive. Standing, they hurried toward us. I was filled with relief that these people seemed quite a bit friendlier than Delun.

"Hello, I am Min Zian," I greeted quietly, smiling at the women. My face was definitely going to hurt later from so much smiling. It was already feeling somewhat tired.

"Lin Mei Rong!" one introduced herself. She looked quite a bit like Jiao, complete with warm smile and pretty face, but with longer hair, and she was clearly several years younger.

"Lin Chen," the one holding the child said with a polite nod. "I am Delun's wife. And this," she paused, hoisted the girl up on her hip a bit higher, and beamed at me. "This is our daughter, Shuang."

"I'm four!" Shuang proudly informed me, holding up four of her tiny fingers.

"Wow, it is very nice to meet you," I added, echoing Chen's nod and smiling brightly at the little girl's excited face. Jiao led me to the table, sat us both down, and pushed a small tea cup in my direction. I busied myself with the cup, and tried to ignore how Mei Rong and Chen were snapping at Delun to stop glaring at "such a nice young man."

"But Jiao-mèi had her hand on his arm! He's up to no good, I can tell!" Delun whispered heatedly, dropping the forcefully polite tone in which he'd been speaking to me.

"Oh, be quiet, and get over your sister complex," Mei Rong retorted, not bothering to talk quietly or politely.

"I do _not_ have a complex!"

"Daddy! Be nice to Zian-gēge!" Shuang's voice piped in.

"It's not like I'm being _mean_ to him!"

"Come, dear. Let's just sit down and have tea," Chen suggested lightly.

"I don't want to!"

It was getting difficult not to choke on my tea as the three-against-one verbal battle continued behind my back. Unsure as to whether I should be breaking up the fight, or laughing, I simply stayed seated and wordlessly emptied my cup. A glance at Jiao and her extremely amused expression told me that the argument was probably something that happened quite often, and not something that I needed to bother myself with, though I did feel rather responsible.

With a loud thud and two softer plops, the other three finally seated themselves around the table to join Jiao and I. To my surprise, Shuang suddenly pushed my elbow upward out of her way, and awkwardly climbed onto my lap.

My mysterious Tiny Person Magnet was at work again. Why did young people seem to like being around me so much when Meatbun hated me? The bun wasn't so different from a child, especially since he referred to Prince as his mother, yet Dib, Doll, and now Shuang seemed to have no qualms with me at all. Then again, I hadn't kidnapped any of those three like Meatbun apparently thought that I had done to him.

"Sorry about that, Zian-gēge!" Mei Rong declared breathlessly, her triumphant smile telling me that she and Chen had apparently won the fight against her older brother. For now. I doubted he was going to back down so easily.

"Please, there is no need to apologize," I said quietly, trying to mentally apologize to Delun for whatever it was I had done to upset him. He avoided looking at me, and instead stared hard out a window.

"It is so nice to finally meet you!" Chen smiled at me around her teacup and patted Jiao on the shoulder. "After Delun and I were married, I cannot tell you how many times Jiao-mèi sat about sighing, and mumbling to herself 'Oh, I wish I was going to be married soon!' and–"

"Stop making things up, Chen-dàsăo!" Jiao interrupted in a mutter, looking somewhat embarrassed while the other women started chuckling.

"You did that?" Delun demanded, suddenly looking at Jiao with a hurt expression.

"Quit it, Delun-dàgē," Mei Rong sighed and rolled her eyes.

Ignoring the renewed argument between siblings, I carefully lifted up Shuang as she clumsily attempted to reach for her teacup when her arms were far too short for the task, and slid the cup over the tabletop and closer to her outstretched fingers. She gave me a wide smile of thanks and settled against my stomach to noisily slurp her tea. I stared at my own teacup and refrained from patting Shuang's head like I would Dib in this sort of situation. Why were children so darn adorable all of the time?

"So," Chen breathed, looking pleased at my careful little interaction with the tiny girl. "When is the wedding?"

Taking a long sip of tea to give myself time to think, I swallowed slowly, and smiled at her eager expression which was contrasting horribly with Delun's sudden look of fury from the seat beside her. "A month, or perhaps two. I am not quite sure."

"So soon?" Mei Rong asked as she leaned forward in surprise.

"Aside from a vague date, no other decisions have been made as of yet," I answered. It had been a somewhat surprising moment for me, too, when my father had suddenly announced to me on the morning after I met Jiao that she and I would be married so quickly after only just meeting. Not that I had any particular reasons for delaying, but I supposed a part of me would have liked to be more mentally prepared for the event. I also didn't want to make Jiao uncomfortable with the onslaught of a sudden marriage.

"Is that why you're here?" Mei Rong continued, her large eyes nearly glittering with excitement at the proposition of spontaneous wedding planning.

"I invited him over to see the gardens," Jiao intercepted softly. Mei Rong looked rather disappointed at the real reason, and leaned back in her chair, hiding her frown and sigh behind her teacup.

Chen suddenly stood up, pushing her chair backward with a loud clatter and causing Mei Rong to choke on her tea. I watched in surprise as the poor chair nearly fell over from her forceful launch-off. "If you are going to do that, you should go now!" she said hurriedly, tugging on Jiao's elbow. "The forecast said it would rain in the afternoon, and it is already nearing eleven!"

"WHAT?" Jiao yelled. I jumped slightly in shock at the second very unexpected noise, almost causing Shuang to spill her tea. These siblings certainly were energetic.

Jiao stood up just as violently as Chen had, looking horrified as she twirled around to stare out the nearest window as if expecting rain to be showering down already. The warm morning sunlight was still pouring through the glass, though a few dark clouds were starting to gather ominously in the distance.

Hurrying around the table, Chen took Shuang from my lap as I pushed myself backward. "Thank you for letting her sit there," she said, almost apologetically. "She is quite friendly, so I am sorry if she bothered you."

"No, not at all," I denied, shaking my head slightly, and allowing myself a small pat on Shuang's head, but stopped when Delun suddenly started staring at me again in a jealous way. I made a mental note to suggest to Shuang that she sit on his lap next time.

Standing up, I carefully set down my teacup and turned to Jiao. "Shall we?"

"Ah! Yes," Jiao agreed, nodding, though still looking a bit worried as she stepped away from the table. However, before we got far, she turned and looked back with an annoyed expression. "Where do you think you are going?"

Delun stopped in his steps, but looked at her with complete determination. "I'm going with you!"

"No," she refused bluntly, pulling me along again as his mouth dropped open in shock at her dismissal.

When he attempted to continue following, anyway, Chen grabbed his arm and yanked him back. "Quit getting in the way."

"But he–"

His words were cut off as Jiao firmly shut the library door behind us, and led me down the long hallway. She let out a small sigh and shot me a faltering look. "I am sorry they are so…"

Laughing slightly at her lack of words, I glanced over my shoulder, hoping Delun wasn't going to burst out of the library and chase after us. "No, they are quite… entertaining?"

"They are _exhausting_," Jiao corrected with a little frown.

"It was nice," I said quietly, smiling down at her in assurance. "I have a brother, too, but he and I are certainly nowhere near as close as you and your siblings are."

She glanced at me in surprise as we stepped down the stairs again, and headed toward the back of the house. "Why are you not?"

I hummed thoughtfully for a moment. "Sibling rivalry at its worst, to put it simply."

"Oh." She looked like she wanted to ask more, but thankfully didn't press.

When we left the house through a small back door, I sighed slightly and looked at her, wondering if she would be any help in my ongoing struggle with Gui Wen. Close or not, she and her brother must have fought at some point or another.

As she led me along a tree-lined path leading away from the house, I slowed my steps and tilted my head back to look up at the leafy branches overhead. "If…"

Jiao stopped and looked back at me as I ran a hand over the smooth bark of the tree I stood beside.

"If you had a fight with Delun-dì or your sisters, and they refused to speak to you afterward, what would you do?" I asked, continuing onward through the shadowy tunnel of leaves.

Silence stretched on for several minutes while I gave Jiao time to think. She shrugged slightly when we briefly stepped back into the sunlight again through a gap in the trees. "I cannot really answer you in the way you want. Delun-dàgē is not this brother of yours, after all, so even if the situation was similar, the outcome of any approach you take with him could potentially be drastically different." She fell silent again and I nodded at her words. Perhaps I was hoping for something more, but I felt as though I'd gotten what I'd been expecting, anyway.

"However," she continued after a moment, sending me an encouraging smile. "Generally speaking, if I had a fight with one of my siblings, I would give them some space. Literally, at first, since being around one another would probably spark more arguments. But once we are both calmer, simply talking to them about other things will help relieve the tension until they are ready to speak to me of whatever the fight was about."

"And what if they have had a very, very long time to think things through, and they still refuse?" I inquired hesitantly.

"Leaving things unsettled for too long may be worse than trying to clear things up too quickly," Jiao answered slowly. "Thoughts can stagnate in that time, making the fight seem worse than it really was, and bad feelings might sprout up when they could have been avoided." She sighed and frowned. "It might be much harder to reconcile like that."

"Yes," I agreed faintly, giving a sigh of my own. "It seems to be that way. Not to make excuses, but I really did not have a way to try to clear things up after the fight… But, now I am trying to do so. I just need the cooperation of my brother, who seems to see me as nothing but an annoyance."

"Mm." Jiao took my hand and squeezed it gently as we continued walking along the sunny path. "Just allow him a bit of time to think things over, I am sure he will speak to you when he is ready. Give him room until he calms down a bit, but not too much to make him think that you have given up. In the mean time, you could drop him little messages, or something of that sort."

"Small talk?" I asked, smiling slightly.

"Yes!" she answered with a quick nod. "It will relax him."

"It cannot hurt, I suppose." I sighed again, wondering if Gui Wen would read any messages I sent him, or if he would just delete them from his in-game message box upon seeing the sender's name. Knowing how angry he was with me, it would probably be the latter.

Looking around myself at last, I frowned slightly. We'd been walking for quite some time, and I still wasn't seeing any garden. Unless the trees and wildflowers around us counted as a garden, but I didn't suppose that they did.

Pausing in my steps, I crouched down with surprise and picked a tiny pink flower that looked similar to the blue one I'd picked in Second Life. "What is this flower called?" I asked Jiao, holding it up as we continued on.

"That is a wild violet," she informed promptly and smiled in amusement. "A weed."

"I did not know weeds could be so… pretty," I remarked, running my fingers over its soft petals.

Jiao laughed and shrugged. "They can be sometimes. But those are a nightmare to get out of a garden."

"Speaking of gardens," I continued slowly, looking up the path in slight confusion. "Where is this garden of yours? I thought we would have arrived by now."

"All the way in the corner of our property," she answered, waving a hand toward where we were walking. "Not much further."

"Why is it so far away from the house? It seems rather inconvenient."

"My mother did not want it where guests could see it. She thinks it would mar up the grounds. But I kind of like having it all the way out here. It is very peaceful and quiet. The walk and the gardening itself gives me a lot of much-needed time to myself."

"Oh," I said quietly, nodding in complete understanding to both of the reasons for the garden's secluded location. "I know quite well what it feels like to need a get-away spot."

She shot me a tiny smile and nodded in return, taking the violet from my fingers and staring at it. "Why did you want to know what this flower is called?"

I refrained from inhaling sharply at her unexpected question and stared off into the trees, wondering if I should make up some sort of excuse, or just be vague about where I found the original flower. "Ah, I saw one like it a few days ago, and was curious," I answered, purposefully leaving out why it caught my interest in the first place.

"In your yard?" she asked, looking somewhat surprised.

"No, it was somewhere else. In a field," I slowly explained, having no idea if weedy violets were growing in my lawn or not. The conversation was taking a turn that I didn't want it to take. Jiao and I were getting along perfectly, but I wasn't sure how she would react to the fact that I played a game all night long. Weren't games like that usually associated with kids and teenagers? Not that I was an old person, and, if Gui Wen and some of the others were any indication, plenty of adults played Second Life as well. But I was still very hesitant to disclose such things. Especially since fewer people knowing I played meant less of a risk of that fact reaching ears I didn't want it to reach.

"Did you go to the countryside?"

"…You could say that." The wilderness between Star City and Sun City counted as the countryside, I supposed.

Jiao eyed me suspiciously. "Why are you being so evasive all of the sudden?"

"I am not!" I denied quickly, feeling my cheeks burn with embarrassment and renewed nervousness. I wished I hadn't asked in the first place. I could have simply looked up information on the flower online, now that I thought about it.

Her eyes narrowed, and a small smile spread across her face. "A field in the countryside… Why did you visit it?"

My own eyes widened in return at her expression. "I-I went there with a friend of mine after my brother and I had another fight."

"So it is close by?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but wasn't sure how to do so. Could Second Life be counted as 'close by'? It was just a place in the internet, not actually physically close. Or was it physically close? All I had to do was put on a helmet and I'd be there.

"Yes and no… Why are you suddenly interrogating me over a flower?" I asked hotly, crossing my arms and trying to change the subject. A moment later, I quickly uncrossed them when I realized how childishly Dib-like that motion had been.

"Because, I want to know what you do in your spare time!" she answered at once, not seeming to have cared about my little immature outburst. "We are getting married in a few months, I want to know more about you. Now then, I garden, what is it you enjoy doing?"

"I…" I paused and thought for a moment. Did the time while I was asleep count as "spare time"? I doubted that was what she meant. But, other than when I was sleeping, I didn't have any spare time to speak of.

"I do not do much of anything, aside from work," I finally offered, feeling like a very boring person.

"So you do _something_, just not very much," she supplied, smirking slightly. Giving my reluctant expression a sigh, she continued, "It is not like I am going to make fun of you if you tell me, you know."

"I am not concerned about that," I mumbled in reply, wondering if I was telling the truth. She continued to stare at me expectantly, and I worried my fingers along the thick cuff of my jacket sleeve. "Would it be odd to say I play a game in my spare time?" I questioned hesitantly, once again staring off into the trees to avoid looking at her response.

"No," she answered, giving me a small, knowing smile again. "I do, too. So do my siblings, as a matter of fact."

My eyebrows lowered at the mental images of Delun playing Second Life. Heng and I still had no teammates, but the thought of having Jiao's three siblings with us seemed rather irritating. I definitely didn't want another person around to glare at me.

"What game is it?"

Sighing, I glanced at her for a moment before returning my stare to the trees. "Second Life. It is where I found that flower…"

"You play Second Life?" Jiao suddenly exclaimed, her voice much louder than I thought it would be. Feeling somewhat frightened at her reaction, which I wasn't sure as to whether it was positive or negative, I nodded wildly. "That is the one we play!" she continued, smiling widely.

"You do?" I asked in a very small voice.

She nodded. "Which continent are you on?"

"Central," I answered, feeling much more relieved now that she seemed to be taking my Second Life activities lightly.

"What city?"

"Star City as of right now, but I have never really settled down in one."

Her eyes widened slightly. "Where the Grand Melee will be? Are you going to be competing?"

"No!" I denied quickly, feeling sick at the thought, but then paused, calming myself down. "No, I am not. My brother and his team is, though."

"Oh, I see," she said quietly. "I am not competing, either, though Delun-dàgē has suggested it a few times." She gave me a curious look. "You are not on your brother's team?"

I shook my head and smiled faintly. "No, he would never want me there."

"Right, the argument," she said, frowning contemplatively.

"He has five other people, anyway, and six seems to be the usual number of people on a team. Also I have never considered asking to join his, since I have my own little team to train with," I continued, smiling contentedly.

Jiao's eyes widened, and she glanced at me, looking openly disappointed. "Oh… You have a team already?"

I shrugged, laughing slightly. "If my friend and I count as a 'team', then yes, I suppose I do."

"So…" she said slowly, turning around to walk backward, smiling up at me expectantly. "Do you suppose I could come with the others and train with your two-person team?"

"If you would like," I answered, purposefully speaking as slowly as she was.

"We are near Moon City," she supplied, scrunching her eyebrows together for a moment. "If we go there, we can teleport to Star City and meet up with you and your friend."

I made a noise of agreement as a slight annoyance filled me all of the sudden. I wondered why I hadn't thought of the teleportational facilities in each of the cities back when I wanted to return to Sun City. Then again, Heng hadn't said anything to me about teleporting when he and I were leaving Sun City, and we flew the entire way to Star City for five days straight. Knowing how much more knowledgeable at games he was than I, he definitely knew about that particular method of transportation.

That little brat…

"Is that good?" Jiao interrupted my rising anger at Heng's withholding of such important information.

"Ah, yes," I agreed, nodding quickly. "He and I are training on ice trolls with my brother's team at the moment, though. So, should we meet in a few days when we return to the city?"

"Sure," she said with a wide smile. I involuntarily smiled back, feeling happy I'd finally found Heng and I some teammates. Not only would he finally have more company, as he liked, but they were also people I actually knew, and in turn, I'd also be able to spend more time with Jiao and give Gui more space, as Heng and I could train on more difficult monsters without having to rely on the Odd Squad for help. It seemed like a rather nice situation, all around, assuming the four of them fit in with Heng and I. He may have wanted more teammates, but I knew it wouldn't be good to offer Jiao anything concrete other than training together before Heng and I decided if they would be beneficial to team up with, which I hoped very much that at least Jiao was.

A small drop of water landed on my cheek, surprising me. I looked up, and noticed the low, gray clouds had finally arrived. "Ah, it has started raining."

"So it has," Jiao said faintly, also looking upward.

"Do you want to go back?" I asked, feeling somewhat reluctant to return to where Delun was, but Jiao and I hadn't brought umbrellas. If I'd known how huge their land was, I definitely would have. I wasn't sure why we hadn't, anyway.

Jiao smiled at me and shook her head as the warm rain slowly got heavier. Taking my hand again, together we continued down the path toward her hidden garden. "No. I want to stay a bit longer."


	19. Parting Ways

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note **____**–**__ I keep catching myself mentally calling Aeolus "Albert"_

_Al + bird (since he has wings) = Albert…_

* * *

"A-ha-ha!"

I turned my head to look blankly at the source of the extremely loud laugh coming from a few feet away. He was starting to sound like Lolidragon. I wondered if I should have felt surprised, or maybe somewhat sad at the thought, but they had seemed rather similar to begin with, anyway, so I decided to simply take it as it was. They were both weird, however they acted.

"Finally getting yourself into the heat of the fight, hm?"

Without answering his humor-lined question, I slowly drew a hand across my face and wiped off the numerous streaks of dark blood that were running down. I relocated them to Prince's forehead, smirking at him afterward. "No, that wasn't my intention. That last troll simply took me by surprise, spawning behind me like it did."

"Yeah." He nodded vaguely, not seeming to care that he now had even more blood on him. "They do that sometimes… Good thing I was here to chop it for you."

"Right," I agreed half-heartedly, very much wishing for a bath. I doubted I'd ever come to even a sliver of understanding about Prince's love for causing his prey to gush blood everywhere. He seemed to know exactly where to stab to create the biggest blood-spray possible. And only a few moments ago, he had nicely done it right behind me, and I'd stupidly turned around to see what he was doing and received a faceful of the warm liquid.

For some reason, he thought it was endlessly amusing that I didn't like getting even a little bit of blood on me, or anything else, for that matter. Lolidragon and Doll had begun to make it a game to count the drops that had managed to land on me every fight. I wasn't sure, but I wondered if they were making bets behind my back.

I jumped slightly in surprise as Dib suddenly leapt on me without warning. He wrapped his arms around my neck and chuckled for a moment as I let out a sigh of relief. I wasn't sure why I wasn't used to his surprise attacks yet, though he'd been doing it for so long.

"Thought I was another troll, didn'cha?"

"At first, but I don't suppose a troll would hug me," I pointed out with a slight shrug, and smiled as he started laughing. Standing up, I stretched out my wings and waited until Ugly Wolf blessed us, and then took off, landing on top of a large ice shelf, far over the swarming trolls.

"Dib," I called in a firm, confident tone.

"Al," Dib answered just as boldly, though the effect was somewhat different with his childish voice.

"No running away this time," I ordered, shuffling my boots to the slippery edge while tightening my grip on my longbow. "I'm not going to come and rescue you, unless you really need me to do so."

"I know, I know. I won't," he mumbled, slapping the side of my head.

"Stop hitting me, I need all of my health for this."

"Shut up, and get going! They're already down there fighting!"

Without another word, I fell forward into the open air over the ice cavern, Dib tightly clutching my back. In a want not to get in Gui's way, I flew us over to the edge of the area where the Odd Squad was fighting. Stilling my wings, I glided over their heads and did my best to keep myself steady while Dib stood up on top of my back and unsheathed his swords. With his high-pitched battle cry, he jumped off and fell toward one of the bulky ice trolls.

Smiling faintly in amusement, I watched for a moment as he landed deftly on the troll's shoulders, and began chopping wildly at its neck. Drawing an arrow back, I shot the troll's right knee, distracting it from its attempts at throwing Dib off.

**"Incoming on the left!"** Dib yelled, glancing up at me before returning to his activities. Without looking at what was coming, I dropped several feet and circled around behind the troll, seeing a large chunk of ice harmlessly fly off out of the corner of my eye. I was grateful for Prince's warning from a few days ago that the trolls threw things. I'd already been clobbered several times when I hadn't been watching out for the ranged attacks, but now I was on-guard and ready.

Drawing back another arrow, I shot the back of both of the troll's legs. It dropped to the ground, and Dib messily ripped its head off. I shot another troll into the fight, glancing about the ground. Several more trolls were approaching, though I hadn't pulled them. Darn aggressive monsters.

Swooping toward the closest one, I kicked it on my way by and knocked it to the ground. Using the head of an arrow, I stabbed through its eye and roughly dug it around in the troll's eye socket before launching myself back into the air before the other trolls could grab me. Dib darted forward once I was back in the air, finishing off the half-blinded troll.

**"Behind you,"** I warned distractedly through my arrow-shooting. Dib whirled around and slid himself through the legs of a troll that had been sneaking up, chopping his swords at the monster's legs as he went. Shooting one last arrow, I turned and flew toward him as he climbed on top of the collapsing troll's head and leapt into the air, narrowly avoiding getting snatched by several other trolls that had him surrounded. I caught him by the arm, swung him upward, and he climbed onto my back again, breathing heavily.

"That was close," he gasped, sheathing his swords and laying down. "That last one bonked me with its club before I could jump."

"Are you okay? Do you want to go to Ugly Wolf?" I anxiously turned myself in the priest's direction just in case he needed healing.

"No, it's not that bad. Little bit of potion and I'll be fine," he assured, patting my back. Nodding, I lazily circled about far over the Odd Squad as they continued to battle the trolls, and waited for Dib to finish recharging.

Lifting us up near the ceiling, I interestedly looked about the large spikes of ice hanging down, and felt rather glad that they weren't falling. Glancing downward, I smiled slightly and raised a hand, curiously prodding the nearest icicle, wondering what would happen if one really did fall.

"Al," Dib said cautiously. "Don't stab any of the others with that."

"They won't get hit, they're way over there," I grumbled, waving my bow toward the other side of the cave, and continued to poke at the icy spike. Giving it one last forceful push, it came loose with a loud snap and fell, point-first, toward the trolls below, stabbing one through the top of its shoulder. Its arm fell off a moment later, and the troll wildly looked around, roaring in a frustrated manner as if it couldn't tell what had just attacked it.

"Whoa! I wanna try!" Dib suddenly exclaimed, excitedly yanking on my hair. "That big one! I wanna make that one fall!" He pointed toward an icicle that was easily twice as long as I was tall, and several times as wide. It would definitely do a lot of damage to anything it landed on.

Laughing slightly, I obediently flew toward it, and Dib began to punch at the thick, frosty ice. With as strong as he was, it took little time for the icicle to come loose, and it fell to the floor with a deafening crash, squishing two trolls underneath and killing them instantly.

"Whoa!" Dib repeated, chuckling in amusement. "This is fun, let's do it again!"

I started flying toward another one, but paused and fearfully looked up, noticing the little crackling noises coming from above. The ceiling was shaking.

Eyes widening in horror, I darted toward Prince and Lolidragon, screaming, "GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

They glanced up at me, their initial looks of confusion at my behavior quickly slipping into realization and terror when they noticed what I was flying away from. Without hesitation, they turned and ran away toward the other four's refuge under a shelf of ice.

Dib started roaring with laughter as I swooped this way and that, dodging countless icicles falling from the ceiling. Fearing for his safety, I yanked on his boot and pulled him underneath me while I continued to fly all over the place, attempting to get to the Odd Squad while not getting stabbed. Pulling in my wings once we got close, I dropped to the floor and slid the last few feet, crashing into the wall.

Tightly hugging the still-laughing Dib, I watched in shock as the icicles continued to fall throughout the room, sending crash after crash through the air and stabbing the few remaining trolls to death. The rippling waves of falling ice continued for several more minutes, but the last spike finally fell, shattering into many pieces to join in with the mess all over the cavern floor.

"W-well," Dib chuckled, slapping a hand on my chest as he gasped for breath. "That's o-one way to… to…" He took another moment to laugh. "Very thorough cl-clearing of the room, huh, Al? They're all dead."

"It's not funny!" I snapped, more out of terror than anger. "Forget the trolls, _we_ could have died!"

"But we didn't," he pointed out, smiling up at me.

Hardly daring to breathe, I cautiously glanced toward the others, wondering if they were mad at us for almost causing their untimely demise. Much as I was expecting, several of them looked rather angry. Ugly Wolf suddenly stepped forward. On reflex, I re-tightened my grip on Dib and stared up at him fearfully.

"Aeolus," he sighed, "give us more warning next time you decide to cause a spontaneous shower of icicles."

I hastily nodded.

He crouched down and I flinched, wondering what he was doing, but then gasped in surprise as a stabbing pain burst through my leg. Ugly Wolf held up a thin icicle. "You had this poking out of your calf."

"Oh, I hadn't noticed," I shakily replied, frowning down at my wound.

He stared at me a moment as if he didn't believe me, and then ripped out a second icicle. He quickly cast a healing spell—fixing my leg, but unfortunately leaving two large, bloody holes in my leather chaps—and he then looked toward Dib. "Are you okay?"

Dib nodded, leaning against my chest and sighing. "Stupid Al used himself as a shield, as always. I'm fine."

I stood up and stared over the chaos Dib and I had caused, wondering if we were supposed to go pick up all of the loot. "Now we have to wait for them all to respawn," Gui complained, impatiently tapping his fingers on his guqin.

"Well, this gives us a chance to heal," Ugly Wolf offered with a good-natured smile.

"I don't need healing," he grumbled, frowning in irritation.

"It's not like they're gone forever," Dib snapped at him, "so quit whining!"

Gui glared at the tiny boy. "We need all of the experience we can get for the Grand Melee, and you two just killed all of our trolls!"

Dib matched his expression. "Who cares!"

"I DO!" Gui yelled furiously. "YOU TWO ARE JUST GETTING IN THE WAY!"

"THEY–"

"I'm sorry for the trouble," I quickly interrupted. Clamping a hand over Dib's mouth before he could rile up Gui any further, I hurried out from under the ice shelf and carefully stepped over the broken icicles.

"Wait!" Yu Lian called after us. I paused and glanced back as she slowly stumbled over the icy floor. "We have half an hour until the trolls start to respawn in here. Let's pick up the loot before that happens, and go back to Star City for a bit. We've already been training for several days, we should take a break. Anyway, there'll be more trolls in the tunnels leading outside."

Reluctantly nodding, I lowered Dib to the ground and sighed as I crouched beside to the nearest troll corpse, picking up the items it dropped. **"Why do you let Gui push you around?"** Dib huffed after a moment of silence. **"You should defend yourself. It wasn't like we meant to do that, and he knows perfectly well."**

I shook my head as I hurried to the next troll. **"It's better to just leave him be. Nothing good will come out of arguing further."**

**"I know, but still,"** he mumbled, **"he shouldn't talk to you like that. It makes me really angry."**

**"It does bother me,"** I agreed quietly, **"but I just don't want to make him angrier, okay? Please, don't keep bothering him."**

**"Fine."** Dib shot me a frown, and ran off.

Within a few minutes, we'd managed to fill all of our pouches, and we gathered together at the entrance to the cavern. I crouched on the floor, allowing Dib to climb onto my back. Doll hurried up to me a moment later, and I quickly scooped her up in my arms. It had become an unspoken law over the past few days that I was now her chauffeur as well as Dib's. It had been somewhat inconvenient as we wandered the tunnels hunting for trolls whenever we were waiting for the trolls in the cavern to respawn, since I would be carrying her and she'd leap out of my arms without any warning, but I'd slowly gotten used to it. Somewhat.

I stood up, causing my knees to pop noisily. I was feeling very sore from the nearly-nonstop fighting.

I shifted Doll into a more comfortable position while I ran my eyes over the rest of the Odd Squad while they all prepared to leave the mountains at last. I was looking forward to being thawed again. Though relentless training did work up quiet a sweat, I never got really warmed through in the frozen caves like I did outside in the sunshine.

As for frozen things, Gui had once again taken to pretending I didn't exist, and I'd decided to ignore him as well. I was sure that wasn't what Jiao had meant by "give him some room," but I had long-since become tired of his childish attitude toward me whenever I so much as breathed the wrong way, and had discovered it was much easier to simply match his apathy, rather than take everything he did to heart and feel depressed over it. It was his own problem if he wanted to be constantly angry. This would, hopefully, be the last I'd see of him and the others until the Grand Melee, anyway, so he would have plenty of me-free, Prince-filled time once we parted outside the mountain. Assuming Doll would let me leave.

Once we exited the winding, icy tunnels and got back out into the much warmer, open air, I quickly spread my wings and took off, determined not to walk along that stupid path I'd almost died of fright on a few days ago. Walking was nice, but flying was nicer, especially when there were no deadly factors involved in the process. Though Lolidragon's continued yelling, about how unfair my advantage was, was rather annoying. I was just glad she didn't try to get me to carry her as well.

Regardless of everyone else having to walk, it didn't take us long to leave the mountains behind, and enter the rocky area by their roots.

Lolidragon sighed as she stretched herself out. "I definitely could use a nap."

"I think I could, too," Ugly Wolf agreed blearily, scratching his muzzle for a moment before yawning widely.

They both looked at me in unison, eying Dib with feigned jealousy as he snored quietly from his place on my shoulders. Raising an eyebrow, I turned away from their expectant stares. "No way," I muttered. Doll nodded fervently in agreement, staring at them threateningly as if she would summon skeletons to beat the two off if they tried to climb on me.

They laughed quietly to one another as we walked on. Lolidragon made a tsk noise, and patted Ugly Wolf's arm. "Sorry, Wolf-gē, but you're too big for him to carry. He'd snap like a twig under your weight. Dainty Little _Me_, on the other hand–"

"I wouldn't!" I interrupted with a frown, disagreeing more because I didn't like how that sounded, than out of confidence that I would indeed not snap in two or more pieces if I attempted to pick up the enormous wolf that was probably several times my own weight, and over a foot taller, besides.

"He doesn't need to be carried. He's so strong, he can do it himself, no matter what!" Yu Lian declared, causing Ugly Wolf to look extremely embarrassed as he grinned bashfully at his wife. I supposed if he hadn't had fur all over his face, he would have been bright red at that moment.

"Exactly," I agreed with a nod, hurrying along slightly faster to help prove her point. Or perhaps I just wanted to reach Star City sooner so I'd be able to sit down with a nice stamina potion. Our training over the past few days had been fun, but it also had been very taxing on my energy, since I wasn't quite used to the Odd Squad's quick and somewhat chaotic pace. It was nice to train with a team, but I was missing my slow nights alone with Dib.

I didn't bother to listen very attentively as the others began planning a new training schedule for when they'd restocked their supplies and rested up, since I'd already told them Dib and I wouldn't be joining in. I was somewhat glad I'd decided that, because it sounded like they were about to battle something horrible again that lived in a swampy area to the west Dib and I had never explored.

Wondering what Dib and I should go train on, it suddenly hit me that I'd forgotten to tell Jiao that we were returning from the mountains today. Perhaps she was already in Star City, but would I be able to find her easily? She'd refused to tell me her in-game name, because she'd wanted to surprise me, so I only had her real-life appearance to base my search on. Knowing how much a person could change their appearance, I wasn't going to assume she looked the same.

I abruptly paused when we reached the top of a hill, making Doll look up at me in confusion.

Perhaps it wouldn't be difficult after all…

A smile stretched across my face as a small group of four people came into view, sitting in the grass a ways off. One man, three women. Though they were still a bit hard to see from so far away, it was most likely them.

"Doll," I called down quietly. "Would you please walk by yourself from here?"

She gave me an extremely pouty expression and clutched at her staff. "Why?"

"I'm going on ahead with Dib, to meet them," I answered, nodding in the direction of the other four, who had stood up and were staring at us.

"Who're they?" Lolidragon asked curiously.

"Who's who… What?" mumbled Dib, lifting up his head and yawning, pulling on a fistful of my hair in the process of stretching.

I set Doll on the ground, though she was very reluctant to walk on her own, and fixed my eyes on the figures in the distance. "Potential teammates."

"I want to meet them, too!" Doll announced, grabbing my hand and dragging me forward.

"Um, okay," I agreed, though it seemed I had no choice on the matter.

Dib sat up straighter, and leaned over top of my head. "When did you go looking for teammates?" he asked sleepily, sounding slightly confused.

"I didn't. They just sort of happened." It seemed as though everyone I'd met had been an accident. So much for my old reputation for carefully planning everything I was going to do. I gave up a long time ago trying to predict what was going to happen next in Second Life. All hope of an orderly gaming experience had been tossed in the garbage when I met Dib. But I did think that perhaps this was a better way to experience the game, rather than doing things in a calculating manner all of the time.

My eyes settled on the bright smile of Jiao's Second Life character as she hurried ahead of the rest, aiming straight for me, her small, sandaled feet barely even touching the ground. A very happy feeling swelled up inside of me as I noticed she had given only one glance to Gui, not mistaking him for me at all, while the other three were looking slightly confused as to why there seemed to be two of me.

"Zian!" she called, sounding somewhat winded as she came to a halt a few feet away.

"Hello, Jiao," I greeted, smiling widely at her as she brushed a bit of her long, white hair out of the way to glance around the rest of the group. My eyes widened slightly as I looked her over. There was a set of fluffy, white wings protruding from her back.

We matched, I thought, feeling extremely pleased. And Delun's character did _not_ have wings, which made me all the happier. Not that I wanted to escape from the man, in fact I was determined to make him like me, but it was still a nice thought that he wouldn't be able to interrupt Jiao and I as much as in real life.

"I'm Jiū, in-game," she corrected, standing up a bit straighter as her wings twitched slightly, making her loose-fitting white clothing flutter about her small frame. "Half beast, half elf."

"You can go halves?" I asked vaguely. That option hadn't occurred to me when I'd been creating my character. Since newbie villages were organized by race, I wondered in slight amusement how many people had been in that particular one. Choosing such an obscure race would at least ensure a swift class change, since there would probably be no waiting lines for the job masters.

"Yep!" She nodded and whipped out a small wand from her gray belt. The air seemed to ripple and distort along the path she'd waved the thin, wooden weapon. "I'm a magician, specializing in illusions and enchantments!"

"Well, Dib," I called upward, forced relief filling my voice. "We finally have a magician, like you wanted."

He laughed slightly, bouncing one of his booted feet off my chest for a moment. "Yeah. Now we just need a 'whoever we want'."

Smirking, I grabbed his ankle, and waved my other hand at him. "Jiū, this is Dib. My lone teammate I told you about the other day." I paused and gave them time to say hello to one another, and then I gestured to myself. "I'm Aeolus. An angel from the archer class."

"An angel?" Jiū's younger sister asked, looking confused. "Where are your wings, then?"

Delun's character snorted in annoyance, and crossed his arms at me. "You named yourself after a king? A bit conceited, are we?"

I stared at him for a moment, but didn't respond, making him look even more annoyed. Instead, I smiled down at the young girl and extended my wings. "I can pull them in when I'm not using them, so they don't get in my way."

"Oh!" she exclaimed, nodding and looking impressed. "How cute, you two match." She gave Jiū's flushed face a small smile as she echoed my thoughts from earlier.

"I'm Avila, an elf from the warrior class," she promptly informed, patting one of her gloved hands on the tasseled hilt of a long, wide nan dao hanging at her armored hip. Her thin, golden armor looked to be quite light-weight, much like Dib's. Her long, straight and pale pink hair was securely tied up at the back of her head, leaving no strands to fall in her face.

"I'm Xiu Chen, but you can just keep calling me Chen!" Xiu Chen said quickly, waving a small hand and hugging Delun's muscular arm with the other. I nodded at her, smiling slightly. It made things less complicated, not having to remember a new name for each person. Not that it would be terribly difficult.

"I'm a human from the priest class," she continued, holding up a thick green book that I assumed was used for blessings. She had airy, dark green robes to match her "weapon", and her bright green eyes. Her short, bobbed black hair looked much like it did in real life, neatly trimmed bangs hovering just over her thin eyes, and the rest falling about her rounded face.

Dib laughed again, kicking me with renewed vigor. My eyebrows drew together, and I firmly grabbed both of his feet in an attempt to make him stop. "Now you don't have to carry around so many health potions."

"You're right. Now I have more room for _stamina_ potions," I said. He sighed in return, apparently thinking having a priest would make me carry around something other than bottles. I fell silent and glanced at Xiu Chen's husband, who was looking elsewhere with a sulky expression as if he didn't want to introduce himself.

Xiu Chen expectantly stared at him, and then, with an exasperated sigh, she patted his arm. "He's Wei Bo, a human from the warrior class." He didn't bother to look my way and confirm what she'd said, and instead continued to stare off into the distance. Other than the fact that he was wearing a set of medieval-styled silver armor, complete with a thick, red cape hanging about his shoulders, a longsword hanging at his left hip, and a red-painted, broad shield draped over his back, he looked exactly like he did in real life—black hair casually yet nicely drifting in a wind-swept way about his face, strong jaw set in an annoyed manner, sharp, dark eyes scowling.

"Nice to meet you all again," I said quietly, smiling at the four. Finally waving a hand at the others standing beside me, I cleared my throat. "This is the Odd Squad, I'm not sure if they need introductions or not."

Apparently they didn't.

Silence and open mouths met my words as the four shifted their gaze from me, to the team, to Prince, who then gave me annoyed frown over drawing unwanted attention to him. Jiū swallowed and looked back at me for a moment before glancing at Gui. "Your brother's team is the Odd Squad…?"

"I was surprised, too," Dib chuckled.

"Wow! That's like being related to royalty!" Avila remarked in wonder, never taking her eyes off Prince, who was looking extremely uncomfortable as he attempted to hide behind Lolidragon.

"It's a bit annoying, really," I muttered, remembering all of the people who'd mistaken me for Gui in the past. He could go be famous all he wanted, but I much preferred being inconspicuous.

Without warning, Gui furiously glared at me after I'd spoken, and quickly stomped away. I stared at him in shock and confusion as he tramped down the grassy slope without a look back. "Oh," Ugly Wolf sighed quietly, glancing worriedly between Gui and I. "I guess we'll be, um, going… then." He chuckled nervously and everyone said goodbye around me as I silently watched Gui leave, wondering what in the world just happened.

"…What did I do _that_ time?" I asked in irritation up to Dib after they were all gone. Gui was the one who hated being associated with me in any way, and seemed to loath my very existence, but now he was getting all huffy when I said I don't like being mistaken for him. Why did he have to be so contradictory?

"He may be mad at you, but that doesn't mean he won't get hurt with what you say," Jiū explained quietly, staring after the retreating team with a slightly worried expression.

I refrained from saying that went both ways, and pressed my lips together tightly in anger. "How in the world am I supposed to talk to him about anything when he acts like that?" I was positive Gui would somehow find a way to take offense if I even asked him how the weather was. Silence between he and I made me uneasy, but talking made him angry. Whenever I seemed to find a balance, something happened to ruin it all.

"So much for eleven years to grow up," Dib murmured with a sigh, wrapping his arms around my head and resting his chin on top.

Staring at Gui's tiny figure for a bit longer, I wished he'd turn around and come back. I wished he'd just talk to me. Explain what he was thinking. Tell me what to do to make things right again. Yell at me, argue with me, say _anything_, instead of treating me like I wasn't there. Like I didn't matter. He was so warm toward his teammates, but like a block of ice when it came to dealing with me. My deep-seeded fear of being pushed to one side was starting to rise up again.

I finally looked away from him, and ran my eyes over the silent group surrounding me, their faces looking slightly bewildered at what just happened. My gaze settled on Jiū's face, and she smiled up at me encouragingly. As grateful as I felt for her efforts to lift my spirits, I couldn't quite get myself to smile back.

* * *

_Hope I didn't confuse anyone with the pile of new characters. _

_Assuming the internets have not lied to me:_

_Lin Delun (virtuous order) / Wei Bo (great older brother) / the oldest of the three Lin siblings, 22 years old_

_Lin Jiao (beautiful, delicate, tender) / Jiū (dove) / the middle of the three Lin siblings, 20 years old_

_Lin Mei Rong (beautiful countenance) / Avila (little Eve) / the youngest of the three Lin siblings, 15 years old_

_Lin Chen (morning) / Xiu Chen (beautiful morning) / Delun's wifey, 21 years old_

_By the way, Zian means son of peace, Heng means perseverance. :P_


	20. Mud and Lightening

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

I stared absently into the misty air surrounding the wetlands we'd traveled to after we restocked our pouches. Not wanting to stay in Star City, since we'd probably run into the Odd Squad if we did that, we'd teleported to Moon City.

Though teleporting was a very fast method of transportation, I definitely didn't like it. For one, it was unexpectedly expensive. And also I felt as though I'd been squashed through the hose of a vacuum cleaner. But the fare and the discomfort were small prices to pay to get away from Gui's renewed wrath.

I still didn't quite know why he was so mad at me this time. I supposed I should have been more careful with what I'd said, since I was sure if he'd said being related to me was annoying, I'd also get hurt, but that wasn't what I'd meant. Not that I had a chance to explain myself now. He probably wouldn't have listened to an explanation, anyway.

But, regardless of my unease, I was going to leave him alone until after the Grand Melee. He was likely feeling stressed over the competition, so I felt as though it would be better to make my attempts at reconciliation afterward, rather than before.

He was probably happier, now that I wasn't there, I thought with a sigh. Perhaps it would have been best if I'd never involved myself with him in the first place. My presence only brought him irritation, and probably stirred up old memories I doubted he wanted to remember.

"Are you okay?"

I slowly shook my head at the softly spoken words as Jiū sat down beside me in the damp grass. She gave me a worried look, and turned to watch as Dib, Wei Bo and Avila noisily ran around chasing earth demons, splashing mud and water everywhere.

Smiling slightly when Dib tripped and fell into a puddle, I hoped vaguely that he wasn't going to ask for a ride any time soon. He got up a moment later, covered head to toe in filth, and resumed his pursuit of the monster he was attacking, wildly screaming random threats and waving both of his swords around over his head. He certainly was a lot braver than he used to be. I was pleased to see how nicely the other four fit in with Dib and I. Our search for teammates—not that we had even looked at all, after our little trip to the Adventurers' Guild—seemed to be over.

Wiping a bit of the misty air's condensation off my face, I glanced at Jiū and gave her white clothing a slight frown, wondering if we should have picked a cleaner area to train than the wetlands. Unlike in real life, her clothing wouldn't stain or anything. But if they were my clothes, I'd get annoyed at the mud, regardless. Then again, she gardened as a hobby. Mud was probably something she was very familiar with. She certainly hadn't seemed like she minded getting her shoes dirty the other day when we'd walked to her garden in the rain.

"What are you thinking about?" Jiū asked curiously, running her fingers along the length of her wand as her eyes followed the three warriors while they romped through the puddles and cattails, chasing some poor, unsuspecting crane that had decided to land in the area. Xiu Chen ran after them a moment later, though, being a priest, she really didn't need to be out there as well. She looked like she was having fun, anyway.

"Mud," I answered, attempting to keep my face straight when Jiū's gray eyes scrunched up in disbelief.

"How interesting," she commented, smirking slightly.

"Isn't it?" I asked with a smile, leaning backward as I rested my hands on the grass behind myself.

She hummed for a moment, and shrugged. Her wings fluttered restlessly. "I'd thought you would be thinking about other things."

"I was," I confirmed quietly, staring upward at the thick mist floating past overhead, obscuring the sky from view. "But agonizing over them continually isn't going to get me anywhere, so now I'm not."

"I suppose," she agreed.

Sending one last amused glance at the other four, I sat up straighter and opened my pouch. "Look at this," I said after a moment, rummaging around. Jiū turned to face me expectantly. Pulling out several potion bottles, I briefly looked at them, and then set them aside on the grass. "Wrong ones," I mumbled, inserting my hand into the bag again.

Jiū laughed and picked up one of the bottles, shaking it slightly so the bright orange contents sloshed about. "You sure have a lot of these," she mused, leaning forward to look into my pouch as well.

My eyes widened slightly at the close proximity, and attempted to keep my attention on what I was doing, rather than staring at Jiū. My brain didn't seem to be working as my gaze ran over her long eyelashes, and her soft-looking hair, down to her smiling mouth. I vaguely wondered if Gui had as much trouble breathing around Prince as I had at the moment. His odd behavior seemed to be coming into perspective as my mind got a bit fuzzy.

Blinking quickly, I made my eyes to look down again, and felt my face burn as I attempted to force many thoughts out of my head that seemed to be permanently stuck there.

After placing three health potions and five more stamina potions on the ground, I finally pulled out another bottle, and shakily held it out to Jiū. She took it curiously, and turned it around in her hands as I hurriedly crammed my potions back into my pouch.

Inside the bottle I'd given her was the small, blue violet that I'd picked after she and I had first met, mysteriously looking as fresh and alive as it had initially. I tapped my finger on the smooth glass. "The flower I told you about," I explained as she sent me a questioning glance, and I chuckled. "Weed or not, I thought it was very pretty."

She nodded and smiled. "Yes, it is."

Watching her for a moment, I took a deep breath. "It reminded me of you," I admitted, feeling a bit embarrassed. Fixing my eyes on the bottle so I didn't have to look at her, I scratched my cheek for something to do. Still, I could see her eyes widen in surprise. Her cheeks turned slightly pink, and she glanced up at me, looking flustered.

"AL!" Dib suddenly yelled, followed by many loud splashing noises. Feeling extremely annoyed at the interruption, I turned toward him, wondering what he wanted. My mouth dropped open in horror as he leapt at me, smiling mischievously.

I found myself laying in the damp grass a moment later, covered in cold mud and bits of grass. Dib roughly pounded a fist on my chest. "How come you're not fighting, too?" he demanded, bouncing up and down slightly. Shaking my head, I tried to ignore the pain shooting through my ribs, which were probably crushed into powder from the collision. He frowned down at me for a moment, but a smile quickly took its place. "Did you see what I just did?"

"How could I have not seen you running me over?" I wheezed in disbelief.

"Not _that_! I meant that last fight!" he snapped indignantly, whacking my face with a cattail he was carrying. I immediately took the plant from him and threw it away before he could hit me with it again.

Wincing in pain, I attempted to sit up, though all of the muscles in my chest were protesting against the movement. "I wasn't watching, I'm sorry," I answered, wiping a streak of mud off my chin. Dib's face clouded over with disappointment, his smile fading. He dropped his eyes and nodded slightly, climbing off my lap and watching silently as I stood up.

Jiū quickly got to her feet as well, looking at me in concern, and hesitantly held out the bottled violet to me. "Ah, it was for you," I said quietly as I gently pushed her hand back. I supposed I didn't need a flower as a reminder, now that I actually had her there.

"Oh, thank you." She smiled up at me, and carefully tucked the bottle into her pouch.

My hand was abruptly grabbed by Dib, and he forcefully dragged me down the side of the hill I'd been sitting on. Looking at him in confusion, I fought to keep my footing on the slick grass while he pulled me toward where the earth demons were wandering around. He paused at the nearest puddle, an angry look on his flushed face. I tried to take my hand back so I'd be able to get my bow out, but he gripped my fingers tighter.

"What's wrong?" I asked, wishing he'd stop crushing my hand.

Dib was silent for a long moment, and then took a few deep breaths. A bright smile suddenly spread across his face, and he pulled me forward again, shaking his head. "N-nothing…"

"That wasn't nothing," I disagreed, frowning at him as he purposefully led me straight into the puddle. Grimacing, I stared down as I sank into the thick mud, and then glanced back up at him. He looked extremely upset about something.

"What–"

"I said it's nothing," Dib interrupted quietly, pulling his swords out and walking away from me without looking back.

Staring after him in bewilderment, I tried to sort out what was going on. Nothing enlightening came to mind. In the past, he'd never hesitated in telling me what he was thinking. In fact, it was getting him to stop talking that was the tricky part.

Well, now that I thought about it, there was the time on our business trip that he'd acted strangely and refused to disclose his thoughts to me. But this wasn't like that. At the moment, he looked more like he had when I'd tried to "rescue" him from the dragon king. But I'd been obediently not interfering this whole time, letting him do whatever he pleased like I assumed he'd wanted.

So why was he mad at me? And why was he trying to hide it? I definitely would have chased after him and demanded an answer, but the others were there, and I felt somewhat hesitant at making a scene in front of them. Perhaps I would have a chance later to ask before I had to wake up.

I already had Gui mad at me for various reasons, I definitely didn't want Dib to be as well.

Stepping out of the sticky mud, I frowned down at my filthy boots and pulled out my bow. Quickly stringing it, I walked back up the hill, dragging my feet as I went in a hope that the wet grass would help clean off the muck, if only slightly. As Jiū came into view through the mist, I gave her an apologetic look.

"Is everything okay?" she asked worriedly.

I shrugged slightly at her question, and pulled out an arrow. Hissing slightly, since my fingers still hurt from getting squashed, I gritted my teeth. "I don't know."

"He looked really angry," she cautiously said, running her eyes over the area where he'd disappeared into the mist.

"Mm…" I muttered, pulling my arrow back experimentally, and tried to think up an excuse for his behavior. "He's probably just annoyed I wasn't watching his fight."

Jiū paused, and then smiled knowingly with a nod as I finished. "Yes, Shuang-mèi acts like that from time to time, too."

I froze for a moment at her comparison. Dib must not have told them his real age.

A child's reaction to an adult's lack of attention…

Was it really that? I'd never spent time with children, so I wasn't sure if it was similar or not. Somehow, I doubted that's what it was. Dib may have had many similarities to a real child, but I knew he wasn't really like one at all. If anything, he was more like an old man with all the wise things he'd told me in the past.

Shooting one more uneasy look toward where I could hear his voice coming from, I decided to put it aside until I'd get a chance to talk to him, and focus on killing things instead.

As I let my eyes wander around the misty ground surrounding the small hill, my eyes came to a halt on the jeweled ring on my right hand. I still hadn't tried it out, since Dib and I had been training on those ice trolls. I supposed I could have tested the ring out in the caves, but I doubted it would have done very much as ice was a rather poor conductor of electricity. However, since this area had a lot of water, I wondered what I could get the ring to do.

Several minutes passed, and nothing happened. I frowned down at the twisting gold bands, wondering how I was supposed to activate it or whatever. I'd never used magic before. I could have asked Jiū, but I wanted to figure it out on my own.

Focusing on the ring itself, I felt slightly relieved when my untouched-until-now mana points drained away. The ring started glowing slightly. Curiously raising my bow, I aimed at one of the brown and stumpy earth demons meandering through the mud puddles. I let the energy in my ring transfer to my arrow, and off it flew.

Much to my surprise, a deafening crack of thunder blasted through the air, and a bright flash of light nearly blinded me as my arrow, covered in little bolts of lightening, caused the demon to explode. Several screams of surprise from the others rang out at random spots in the mist when the lightening branched away from the flying pieces of demon, and hit several other monsters that were nearby.

**"AEOLUS HAS DEFEATED EARTH DEMON! EXPERIENCE +400! NEW SKILL LEARNED: WRATH OF ZEUS!"**

Slowly, silence fell once more, and I glanced around at the dead monsters' smoking corpses. It took me quite some time to close my mouth afterward. Ears ringing, I blinked couple times and lowered my bow. A bright trail of light was imprinted on my vision from where the arrow had flown. I felt like my hair was standing on end from the suddenly charged air.

Perhaps I should have warned everyone beforehand, I belatedly thought. Then again, I doubted anyone would have been able to prepare for such an attack, seeing as how I myself had been completely unprepared, and I'd been the one who had done it.

I hadn't known it would be so powerful, since my mana was very low. I'd never thought I'd have an opportunity to use magic, since I was an archer, so I'd never leveled it, aside from one or two points here and there over the months. Whatever had happened, I definitely wasn't going to do it again.

"What in the world was that?" Jiū shakily asked, eyes wide and hands tightly clutching her wand as she stared at me in fright.

I drew in a breath, and opened my mouth to answer, but I didn't seem to be able to speak just yet. I glared down at my ring as if it had done it on purpose. It sat twinkling innocently on my finger, looking like a normal little ring, not a bringer of extremely loud destruction.

My eyes shot upward again as loud, splashing footsteps sounded out at the base of the hill. Dib ran into view, looking extremely worried. "Al!" he yelled, scrambling up the slippery grass, the others not far behind. "What happened? Are you okay?" He slid to a stop, spraying me with muddy water and tightly grabbing me around the legs.

"What was that?" Wei Bo asked loudly, looking around the air as if he expected there to be a thunderhead floating around over the marsh.

I quickly picked up Dib to try to calm him down, and cleared my throat, smiling twitchily at the others. "Sorry… That was me."

Wei Bo raised an eyebrow and frowned. "You're not a magician. What the heck did you do?"

Shifting Dib over in my arms slightly, I wiggled my right hand at him. "I got this ring from the dragon king last week," I explained. "I, um, thought it would be a good time to try it out… Since there's a lot of water here."

"Oh," he said with a nod, and scratched at the back of his head for a moment. Waving his longsword at me afterward, he gave me a stern look. "Warn us before you do that, geeze. Trying to make us go deaf?" he grumbled, turning away to return to the base of the hill.

"I'm sorry," I called after him, hoping he wasn't too mad at me. He shook his shield in the air in response, and I smiled slightly. Avila and Xiu Chen followed him a moment later, laughing and chatting to one another quietly. I breathed a sigh of relief that no one was yelling at me, and glanced down at Dib. He had his eyes squeezed shut, and was gripping the strap of my quiver so hard his knuckles were white.

"Are you okay?" I asked, wondering why he seemed to be the most surprised, since he was the one who gave me the ring in the first place.

He nodded slightly and cracked his eyes open, staring at my ring. "That was really loud, you jerk."

"I'm sorry," I repeated, hugging him a bit tighter for a moment. His little hand slowly let go of the strap, and he sighed. Jiū warmly smiled at him, sent me a nod, and then took off into the air, flying toward the marsh with her wand in hand. Dib's narrowed eyes followed her progress, and he sat up once she'd been swallowed by the mist.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I asked quietly.

"I'm fine," he answered slowly as I carefully set him down on the dark grass. He stood still for a moment, and then took my hand, pulling me downhill again, much more gently than he had earlier. "Come fight down here with me."

I wordlessly let him lead me away, not feeling convinced by what he'd said.


	21. Vanishing

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

Her smiling face as she looked at me fondly, the warm, loving expression that I'd never seen until I met her.

The intense, focused stare she has when she concentrates, whether it's fighting something or simply doing her gardening.

The teasing quirks of her thin eyebrows as she threads jokes into our conversations, effortlessly lightening my mood and drawing out the contented smiles in me that I'd thought were long gone.

Over the past few days, I'd often found myself studying Jiao's face. Observing each expression she made and tucking them away in the corner of my mind like precious treasures I could admire again and again. And there were many to remember.

How was it possible that one person was so full? So complete?

Only months ago, I'd been empty, blank, alone. Yet I truly hadn't been discontent at all. Bored and restless, but I hadn't thought that was a bad thing. It was normal. I had so much, why would I complain?

But now that I knew what I'd been lacking, I was determined to never take things like this for granted. Jiao, and Heng, and all my other new friends, all the time we spent together; each second was precious to me. Perhaps it was because I knew it could all be taken away from me in a moment, but I held all of the memories of the past few months, good and bad, close to me.

Looking up at Jiao across the table, I knew I was only going to get more. And that was a very encouraging thought.

Involuntarily, a little sigh escaped my lips as I leaned back in my chair and reached for my coffee cup. Jiao glanced at me wonderingly, and I smiled at her. Her face lightened somewhat, and she leaned over the chair of our other companion—Jiao and I had taken Shuang out for the afternoon.

Perhaps I simply wanted to observe Shuang's behavior to be able to compare it with Heng's, since I hadn't had a chance yet to talk to him, but Chen and Delun had also asked Jiao and I to watch the little girl while they went out to lunch with one another. Being very fond of their daughter already, I was very happy to have the opportunity.

My face heated up somewhat as the wondering thought as to what Jiao and my children might be like floated into my head. Somehow, I'd never pictured myself as a father before. But being around Shuang made me wonder if I would be a good father—I knew that often children grew up to be similar to their own parents.

When I tried to imagine myself being different from how my own father was, I wondered if it was even possible. I certainly didn't _want_ to be like him, but I found many affinities between he and I, regardless. Like my impatience with other people, my rather short temper, my ceaseless work ethic that I get angry over if anything becomes muddled… Would I have enough control over myself to be a father my children would need? One they would want? What if I made a mistake and they came to hate me like Gui Wen hated our father?

I knew from past experience with things that it wasn't enough to simply envision something. First I would have to change myself if I wanted to gain anything.

But I knew the effort would be worth it.

Shuang bounced up and down in her chair, humming to herself as she ran her spoon through the ice cream in her bowl. With a very concentrated expression, she scooped up a lump of the cold dessert and popped it into her mouth, getting quite a bit of it on herself rather than actually eating it. Dropping her spoon in the bowl, she gave me a wide smile. "Ahh!"

Holding myself back from laughing at her ice cream-covered cheeks, I picked up her napkin. "You're a messy eater," I commented, giving her a serious stare as I tilted her chin back to clean that which was dribbling down toward her pink, ruffled shirt collar.

She giggled as a response, and promptly made a mess again with another mouthful. "I'm not messy!" she declared after swallowing, swirling her spoon around in the melted cream.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked her, quirking an eyebrow in amusement. She was even more of a messy eater than Dib, and that was quite the accomplishment.

She nodded confidently. "Mommy and daddy said so."

"I see," I said, sipping my coffee.

Jiao laughed quietly into her own cup, and looked fondly down at the little girl. "If they said it, it must be true," she mused.

"'Course it is!" she affirmed. Shuang then went back to her ice cream without another word, noisily eating the rest of it. When I was just finishing with my coffee, she dropped her spoon back into her empty bowl and hopped off her chair. "I have to go to the potty," she announced with a frown, tugging on Jiao's sleeve.

"Okay, honey." Jiao quickly stood and picked Shuang up. "Be back in a moment," she told me before hurrying toward the entrance to the café we were sitting outside. I waved a hand at them, and settled back down in my chair, staring at the little dribble of coffee I still had in my cup, wondering if I should get more, or if Shuang would want to leave after they came back outside.

Deciding not to chance it, I set the empty cup back on the table and silently watched as people walked past the café, up and down the sunny sidewalk. I wondered vaguely why I'd never done this before; simply sitting outside and observing that which happened around me. It was very relaxing, sitting there in the warm sunlight, doing nothing in particular.

Several minutes passed, when I then heard footsteps stop beside me. I looked up with a surprised smile at the unexpected face staring down at me. "Hey!"

Heng stared at me in amusement at my energetic greeting, and waved a hand. "Hey, Al."

"What are you doing here?" I asked, gesturing at one of the empty chairs in an invitation for him to sit down. It had been a long time since he and I had talked in real life, and much longer since we'd actually had a conversation. It was nice to see him again.

Rather than sitting, he lifted a small, white box he was holding. "I was at the bakery down the street, buying a cake." He cleared his throat and glanced at the messy tabletop before sending me a teasing smile. "Are you with someone, or were you just uncharacteristically hungry for once? I can't imagine you being so hungry to have ordered three drinks and a bowl of something all for yourself."

Smirking, I picked up my empty cup, wiggling it at him. "Yes, I was completely famished. So I drove all of the way here and got myself a cup of coffee to save me from starvation."

"Ah, I see," he breathed, nodding with a serious expression. "Well, I'm glad you're not dead."

"Me too," I agreed.

"…So, who–" he started, but paused as a ringing noise erupted from the pocket of his denim jeans. Stuffing his hand inside and pulling out his cellphone, he flipped it open and glanced at the screen. A fond smile settled on his face, replacing his initial look of irritation at the interruption. "Sorry, I have to go," he said quickly, taking a step backward. "See you tonight, Al."

"Bye, Dib." I curiously watched him as he hurried away from the café and walked briskly down the sidewalk, chatting animatedly into his cellphone the whole while. I didn't have long to wonder who it was he was talking to as Jiao and Shuang emerged from the café a moment later, waving energetically at me.

"I paid inside," Jiao informed as I stood up.

"Okay." We stepped out onto the crowded sidewalk, and I glanced around for a moment before smiling widely at Shuang as she grabbed my hand. "Where shall we go now?"

"The park!" she chose excitedly.

"The park it is, then," I consented in amusement over her enthusiasm. Picking her up, I took Jiao's hand and the three of us walked down the sidewalk.

That night as I logged into Second Life, I was still feeling rather confused over the whole Child VS Dib thing. As a small test, I'd purposefully ignored Shuang for a few minutes while we were playing together at the park, and she did indeed get annoyed with me. But Dib's reaction had been so much more violent and angry. Maybe because he was a boy? Girls did seem to be more reserved than boys did.

However it was, I finally had a chance to talk to Dib alone, since the other four were going on a family trip for several days, giving me plenty of time to ask him what was going on.

"Dib?" I called loudly into the mist, carefully stepping around the giant mud puddle in front of me, though my efforts to stay clean didn't do much, since the ground surrounding the puddle was just as muddy. I made a mental note never to train in the wetlands again. They should have come with some sort of warning for how filthy one would become, training here for even a moment. When I heard "wetlands" I'd been expecting something more, well, _watery_. Then again, taking Jiū's white clothes into consideration, watery places might not be such a good idea after all, since if they got wet, they'd probably turn…

My face abruptly began to burn, and I attempted to flush that particular topic out of my mind. What was the matter with me? Thinking about such lewd things…

I returned to my search for Dib with renewed concentration in a want to distract myself.

"Over here, Al!" Dib's slightly muffled voice called from somewhere to my left, startling me somewhat. I stayed as still as I could as he ran up through the swirling vapors, splashing mud everywhere. "Hey!"

"Hey," I greeted with a smile as he hugged my leg. Regardless of the filth involved, I bent down and quickly picked him up before he could ask and gave him a squeeze.

He laughed for a moment, but then he suddenly began looking around us, searching the mist. "…Where are the others?" he asked slowly, suspicion clouding his happy smile.

"They won't be on for a few days," I answered, extending my wings and lifting us off the sticky ground. There had to be some other place to train in Moon City other than this mud hole. There was a small wooded area near the city gates, perhaps there were monsters in there worth training on.

Dib's eyes widened and he said "Oh!" as his smile returned with increased intensity at the news.

I glanced down at him in bewilderment at the bizarre reaction and lifted us out of the mist, into the startlingly bright sunlight. Why was he, an extremely outgoing person, so happy we were on our own again? Wasn't that usually my job? In contrast to his alleviation, I was feeling a tiny bit lonely without Jiū there. I thought he liked the other four. He'd certainly never complained about them before. In fact, he always looked like he was enjoying himself quite a bit whenever he interacted with them.

Sighing slightly, I pushed that aside and looked around for somewhere not covered in mud where we could land. "Dib," I called quietly, directing myself toward a large hill by the edge of the mist. I didn't particularly want to annoy him with my prying, but I figured I should at least attempt to come to some sort of understanding about his behavior. It was annoying, not knowing what was going on.

"Yeah?" Dib replied, peering up at me curiously.

"Are you okay? I know I might be annoying you with the repetitive questions, and you already said you were, but it's just that you were acting kind of odd last night."

His face immediately darkened, and he let his eyes drop away from my face. That wasn't a good reaction…

"Who were you with at the café this afternoon?" he suddenly asked, a hint of anger heating his words.

"I was with Jiū," I answered, trying to ignore the surprise at his icy tone. "And also her niece."

Silence took over and I felt somewhat frightened at his abrupt change in mood. He looked positively furious, and I didn't know why. Somehow, I couldn't get myself to ask, feeling as though he might attack me at any moment.

"Al." His voice nearly came out as a snarl. I stared down at him, wide-eyed, but didn't answer. "When I said you should make _friends_, I hadn't meant it like _that_."

Confusion washed over me. Why wouldn't I make friends with her? Never mind the whole teammate thing, who wouldn't want to be friends with their own fiancée? She and I were going to, hopefully, be together for the rest of our lives. It seemed a bit silly, not being close to her on several different personal levels, even if it was just an arranged marriage.

Dib glanced up at me again, worry filling his angry expression. "Al, what is she to you? Was it just a casual get-together? Or did you randomly run into her while you were out?"

Oh, right. I hadn't told him yet, had I? With the fight we'd had over what happened with the dragon king, I'd completely forgotten.

Even with as scared as I was feeling, I smiled slightly. "She's my fiancée. We got engaged five or six years ago, and we're getting married in a couple months; whenever my father picks a date, I suppose. Not that he really has–"

"Put me down."

I froze at his quiet command, and then looked down at him fearfully. His eyes were open wide, a horrified look on his flushed face. "I SAID PUT ME DOWN!" he yelled after I didn't answer, and began squirming in my grip.

"Wait, stop," I said, trying to keep my hold on him as I hurried toward the side of the grassy hill. He only struggled harder. "Let me land first, damn it!" Once we were finally on the ground again, he roughly shoved me away.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I snapped, rubbing the numerous sore spots where he'd hit me.

"Wrong with _ME_?" he screamed, looking hysterical. "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH _YOU_?"

I shut my mouth, having no idea what to say to him. Tears suddenly started spilling down his face, sobs wracking his body. "Stay away from me!" he yelled when I tried to take a step forward. Quickly taking my hands back, I stared at him from a distance, my mind reeling. I'd seen him upset before, but never to this extent. What in the world was wrong?

Several minutes passed, and he then shook his head. "W-why didn't you _tell_ me?" he demanded, his voice cracking slightly.

"I… I'm sorry," I said, shrugging in utter confusion. "I was going to, but I hadn't yet. Is it really so important?" I asked slowly, but that was apparently the wrong thing to say.

His face twisted with rage. "Of course it's important that you're engaged, you moron!" he roared. "How could you keep it from me for so long?"

"I DIDN'T DO IT ON PURPOSE!" I bellowed at him. "Why the hell is it such a surprise? Isn't it normal for someone our age to get married? For all I know, you have a fiancée, too!"

"I DO NOT!" he denied, whirling around and stomping away from me. "OF COURSE I DON'T, STUPID! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN THINK THAT AFTER… AFTER… DAMN IT! HOW CAN YOU BE SO DENSE, YOU DAMN IDIOT?"

"Wait! Where are you going?" I yelled, starting to run after him.

He sent me a murderous glare over his shoulder. "Don't you dare follow me!"

"But–"

"Don't!" he repeated, halting my steps. He gritted his teeth, and looked upward for a moment, wiping his hands across his face. "Just leave me alone for a while, Al…"

"Wait!" Regardless of his order, I stepped toward him. But before I could say or do anything else, he vanished. I stared blankly at the spot where he'd been standing, my heart pounding uncontrollably. Inhaling sharply, I hastily glanced around the empty area as if he'd be still there somewhere, but I was alone there on the side of the hill. Panic started to rise up in the silence that followed our fight. Where Dib's cheerful voice usually was, there was suddenly nothing. I felt as though I'd gone deaf.

I waited there all night, but Dib never came back.


	22. His Kiss

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

It had been several days since Heng's furious outburst at me. He hadn't even come into work the whole time, having called in sick. In-game, I'd stayed in the spot where he'd left me, but he didn't login again. Getting rather tired of scaring off random players who were passing by, I finally decided to just go find Heng in real life to get an explanation for his actions. Being his boss, I had his address, though I'd never dared go to visit him before, since my father would definitely not like it. But, slipping out in the evening while he was eating dinner, I hoped he wouldn't notice my absence.

I hesitatingly lifted my finger and put it over the small doorbell of Heng's house, slowly pressing it down. Waiting in silence, I stared at the outside of the white door, hoping he would answer. Several minutes passed, and nothing happened. Glancing over my shoulder for a moment, I shifted uneasily on the step, but didn't leave. Perhaps he wasn't home. He never told me what his plans were, so I supposed I shouldn't be surprised if I go to his house unannounced and discover he's not there. But I didn't know where else to look for him. Now that I thought about it, I didn't know anything about him other than what was supplied on his employee records. Simple facts on a piece of paper. But not _him_.

Ringing the doorbell again, I leaned a bit closer to listen, trying to quiet my breathing. Soft, even footsteps met my ears, and I stepped away from the door, feeling relieved. The door cracked open a moment later, and Heng's eye slipped into view.

Now that he was there, I didn't really know what to say. Guilt stabbed at me as I saw how tired he looked. I wondered if he'd been asleep, although it was rather early still.

"Why are you here?" he asked, sounding angry as his eyes narrowed at me from around the corner of the door.

Frowning, I stepped closer to the door, but he didn't move to open it for me. "Why do you think?" We stared at each other wordlessly for a moment, and I sighed at his stubbornness. "May I come inside, please?"

With as long as he took to respond, I thought he was going to refuse. But he finally backed away from the door and swung it inward to allow me entrance. I walked past him before he could change his mind, and stopped inside the small entryway. He shut the door and glanced at me before striding down the dimly-lit hall, disappearing through a doorway at the end. Slipping off my shoes, I hurried after him, feeling nervous at his uncharacteristic silence. I emerged from the hall into a small living room, and I nearly smiled at the sight. There was a long couch against one wall, with a little television set nearby. Piles of movies and video games were arranged haphazardly at the base of the television's stand.

Though a bit cluttered, it was so unexpectedly neat and orderly.

Heng gave a snort and crossed his arms at my wondering expression. "Sorry it isn't as _grand_ as yours."

My eyes widened in surprise at his unexpected remark. Why would he think that bothered me? Who cared what a house was like? In fact, I much preferred small, warm, and homey places like this rather than my own spacious, empty, and cold mansion.

Rather than retorting, I turned away and looked at a row of picture frames set on top of a single wooden shelf hanging on the wall nearby. Stepping toward it, I curiously ran my eyes over the faces. Surprise washed over me anew.

Three little Dibs were lined up in the frame in the middle. Well, Dib if he had black hair and eyes. A younger-looking Heng was standing behind the three boys, a familiar, bright smile on his face.

"Are these your brothers?" I asked, glancing over my shoulder to where Heng was still standing, looking annoyed.

He gave a reluctant nod and slowly walked up behind me to look at the picture as well. A tiny, fond smile twitched at the corner of his mouth. Seeing that expression, I wondered if it had been one of them he'd been talking to on his cellphone when we'd seen each other outside the café the other day.

"Yeah, they're my little brothers. Triplets, quite the handful when they were babies…"

"They're cute," I remarked, grinning down at the picture. "How old are they? Are they home?"

"They're twelve now, but that picture was taken back when I was in high school, six years ago. And no, they're sleeping over at a friend's house tonight," he said quietly, and then gently pulled on my arm. "Al, why are you here?"

"Do you _really_ have to ask? I want to know why you got mad at me." I shot him a peevish expression, refusing to turn around.

Heng sighed deeply while I looked at the other pictures of his brothers. "Why can't you figure it out for yourself?" he muttered.

"I want to hear it from you," I answered slowly. Leaning forward slightly, I looked over the rest of the photographs as Heng fell silent. Other than the many pictures of Heng and his brothers, there were also several of an adult couple who I assumed were Heng's parents. Many of those also contained a very small Heng, and, here and there, three little babies.

It was a bit strange to see so many family photographs. I doubted there were any such things at my house. Other than photos for work, I doubted my father and I had ever even taken a picture together. He would definitely see something like that as a waste of time.

"May I speak plainly, then?" Heng asked softly as I straightened up, giving one last sweeping look to the numerous frames, curious as to why there weren't any recent photos of his parents.

"Of course."

"You won't get mad?" he furthered, sounding hesitant.

I pressed my lips together for a moment, wondering why I'd get mad. If anything, I thought I'd be rather happy if he finally said exactly what he was thinking. I was very tired of being confused.

"I suppose that depends on what you say. I'll try not to, wha—HOOAGH?"

"What the hell kind of a noise was that?" Heng grumbled, slipping his arms around me tightly, cutting off my sentence.

"Wha-what are you doing?" I demanded, pulling at his right hand as it traveled up to my chest. He pressed his left to my stomach, holding me in place. I couldn't begin to count the times we'd hugged already, but this was definitely not a friendly little hug…

"That tickles, stop it."

Rather than letting me go, he silently dropped his head onto my shoulder and held me closer against himself. His heart was furiously pounding against my back as if he was frightened. Suddenly his hand pulled at my shirt collar, and I sharply inhaled when his lips brushed against my neck. I immediately began yanking at his arms again. "Stop that! I said talk, I didn't say do… whatever it is you're doing! Let go of me!"

Pausing in my struggles, my eyes widened when he let out a choked sob, and hot tears started soaking through my shirt, onto my shoulder. Oh, damn. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. What in the world was going on? He couldn't possibly be… Oh, damn. A train of enlightenment suddenly hit me. And several cars, and buses, and a steam roller.

Oh, damn.

"Heng?" I called cautiously, purposefully using his real name and trying to turn myself around to face him. This was absolutely horrible. And completely… completely… Well, I didn't know what it was. When did this happen? Why the hell hadn't I noticed until just now? Why was I so insufferably _stupid_?

Heng's hands painfully tightened, and I gasped as he squeezed all of the air out of me. "Don't you dare turn around," he brokenly ordered. Defiantly squirming around and slightly prying his hands off me, I managed to twist about to look at him. But I regretted it a moment later when I suddenly found his mouth covering mine. I froze in shock, staring at him as his eyes closed, and he leaned forward, grabbing my head with one hand to hold it in place as he roughly kissed me, a desperate look on his face.

Inwardly screaming, I pushed as hard as I could against his chest, but he refused to budge. I hadn't even kissed Jiao yet, and here I was getting attacked by another man. One I'd seen as a second brother this entire time. What was I supposed to say to Jiao next time I saw her?

I struggled as hard as I could in his grip, twisting this way and that in an attempt to get him off of me, until his hands finally loosened. Turning my head to one side, I finally broke the contact and glared at him out of the corner of my eye, breathing heavily at his version of "speaking plainly," which didn't seem to have very many verbal aspects.

"Do you get it now?" he asked after a moment, to which I nodded fervently in a hope that he would quit squashing me up against the wall. Refraining from letting out a relieved whoosh of breath, I watched guardedly as he stepped away from me with a blank expression. In a want to avoid hurting him further, I let him walk away from me, though I very much wanted to run out of the house.

He stopped in the middle of the room and sighed. "I'm sorry, if I scared you."

"N-no," I muttered, and then lifted a hand over my mouth. "Well, yes." After a moment, my hand drifted up to cover my eyes, and I vainly tried to calm myself down. "Heng, I don't…"

"I know," he quietly interrupted.

Peeking at him through my fingers, I watched as he turned to face me once more, a sad, resigned smile on his face. Looking at his hopeless expression, I wanted to cry. I hadn't meant to hurt him.

Biting the inside of my cheek, I let my hand drop to my side and turned to the door. I didn't suppose he'd appreciate such a quick exit, but I didn't particularly want to stay there any longer.

Before I could reach the hallway, Heng's hand took mine, stopping my escape. I glanced at him over my shoulder in worry, trying to tug my hand out of his grip. "Al," he called quietly, pulling me back into the room.

"What?" I inquired, trying to refrain from slapping his hand away so I could leave.

"…Stay here tonight?" he asked softly.

My eyes widened and I shot him an incredulous look before attempting to run down the hallway. "No!" I yelled, feeling my cheeks flush with embarrassment. He just said he knew I didn't like him in that way, so how could he possibly ask me to do something like that?

Heng's face copied mine, and turned a deep shade of red as his mouth dropped open. "Al, geeze… That's _not_ what I meant," he denied, sounding extremely flustered as he tugged me back into the living room.

I grabbed the door frame in a panicky effort to get away.

"Al, quit it!" Heng grumbled, yanking on my shoulders to try to dislodge me. "I'm not going to do anything to you!"

Not letting go of the door, I glanced at him suspiciously. "Really?"

"Really," he confirmed.

"You aren't just saying that?" I continued, feeling thoroughly disbelieving after what he'd just done.

"No," he answered, looking somewhat offended. "…I won't force you to do anything."

Then what did he call what he just did?

"Even if I really…want to… do things." His murmured addition made me want to leave all the more desperately. Awkward situation aside, I didn't want to think of what my father would do if I stayed out all night without his consent. Especially at Heng's house, of all places.

"Please, stay? Ple-e-e-e-ease?" Heng begged, giving me a hopeful, Dib-ish look.

Damn that look.

Sighing softly, I glanced once more at the door of salvation sitting only a few feet away, then finally let go of the door frame. "Okay, I'll stay the night." Heng's face immediately brightened and he smiled. I pointed a finger at him threateningly. "But don't you dare do anything, or else."

"I won't! Geeze," he snapped, crossing his arms and frowning. Nodding in exasperation, I turned back around and hesitantly stepped into the room again. Now that I'd agreed, Heng looked like he didn't quite know what to do with himself. Twisting his hands around themselves, he glanced at me. "Want some tea?"

"Yes, please," I replied, nodding slightly.

"Go ahead and sit down if you want." He waved a hand at the couch. With that offered, he nearly ran from the room, disappearing through another door beside the one that led to the hallway. Sighing, I reluctantly lowered myself onto the nearest end of the couch and stared blankly at the opposite wall. I didn't know what to think about what just took place. I'd honestly had no idea he'd thought of me in that way. I'd certainly never thought that way of him. It was extremely bewildering, attempting to adjust my view of him to accommodate for the discovery.

Even with having our little fight cleared up, I was wishing that I hadn't come to find him. What were things between us going to be like from now on? Constant awkwardness? Always behaving in a cautious way around one another to not upset anything? That sounded very irritating.

I slowly looked up when Heng finally came into the room, carrying a small wooden tray in both hands. He determinedly stared down at it while he walked toward me, and sat it on the wide table beside the couch, lowering himself onto the seat beside me. He kicked off his blue house slippers, crossed his long legs on top of the cushion, then proceeded to pour tea from his large teapot into two tall, black mugs.

After handing one to me, he took his own and leaned back against the couch, turning himself sideways to face me. Resting his head on top of the couch back, he wordlessly considered my rigid self as I ran my thumb over the smooth lip of the mug. The air between us was suddenly so thick and impenetrable, I had no idea how to break the silence. Usually there would be some joking taking place, or light conversation, but now…

Several minutes passed while we did nothing but drink our tea, and Heng finally sighed, staring morosely at me. "Al, do you really have no feelings for me at all?"

I took a moment to arrange an answer that didn't seem too harsh. "Not in that way, no, I don't. But you are a very important person to me," I slowly replied, taking another sip of the hot, fragrant tea afterward and wishing he would have said something else.

"You honestly don't? Or is that just what you think your father would want you to choose?" he continued, skepticism clouding his soft tone. "His opinion is always so important to you, you even went so far as to turn us into strangers again because he doesn't like us being friends. He obviously wouldn't approve of something like this. Maybe you're stifling it because of him."

Shaking my head, I leaned back and stared up at the ceiling. "I wouldn't lie to you about something like this," I muttered. "Nor would I ever lie about anything else. I'm honestly not holding anything back, whatever my father's opinion may be."

"Really?" he pressed. "Maybe if you had time to think things over, something would… develop?"

Taking a deep breath, I turned my head to look at him. Fearfully, his eyes darted between mine, searching for a solid answer, but running from it at the same time. "I don't love you and I'm not going to later."

Rather than the resignation I was hoping for, anger flashed across his face. "Are you taking this seriously at all? You didn't even give it any thought!"

"It's not like I have to think long and hard about it. I'm either attracted to you, or I'm not."

"This isn't about attraction," he whispered furiously. "I asked you if you would just… take this into consideration. You're simply brushing it to one side!"

"No. It _is_ a matter of attraction. One part of it, at least. That isn't all there is to this, of course." I sipped at my tea again, then took a deep breath and continued, "You ask if something would develop if I gave this—us some thought. However, there is little I can do to develop those sorts of feelings if I'm not even attracted to you in the first place. Thus I can give you an answer straight away, with little thought. It's not that I'm taking this lightly, it's just that I already know."

Heng was quiet for nearly a minute, then he set his mug down on the table, sat up on his knees and leaned toward me, raising his hand to touch my face. "Then," he whispered, "what can I do to make you attracted to me? What should I change?"

I was somewhat taken aback by his question, but quickly gathered together my scattered senses and tiredly shook my head. "Heng… You know things don't work that way. If I was going to come to love you, then I'd love you as you are. Changing yourself with those motives in mind isn't going to accomplish anything positive, so please, don't try."

He looked like he was about to burst into tears again. "How can you be so confident?" he demanded. "Why can't I even have a chance to change your mind?"

"There is no point in giving you a chance. Even if I thought that my feelings for you would change, I wouldn't agree to having you attempt to sway me, and neither would I let myself be swayed. I'm engaged, Heng," I replied quietly, "whether I want to be or not. I have no intentions of breaking off my commitment to Jiao, nor could I if I tried."

"Are you saying that this is a matter of your integrity?" he snapped. "I feel like you're using your damned arranged marriage as an easy excuse to turn me down without a thought. So, if you weren't engaged to Jiao, you might give–"

"If I wasn't engaged to Jiao," I interrupted, "I would be engaged to someone else my father saw fit."

With a sigh of exasperation, Heng sat back on his heels and pressed a hand to his eyes. "And now we're back to how you constantly act in a way that you think your father would approve. Why can't you just… if even for a second… forget about your father, and forget about Jiao and your engagement. Stop trying so hard to make everything okay for everyone. Just… just think about us… about me."

He took another deep breath and seemed to calm down slightly while he steadily met my gaze. "Will you give me a chance? You may not love me now, but… but later on…"

The control I had on my temper was slipping further and further away from me the more he continued. He'd been insistent on many things in the past, but never so determined as he was at this moment. However, I was equally determined to get him to drop it.

"Have you heard nothing that I've said?" I asked softly, trying my hardest to keep my anger in check. I set my tea down for fear of throwing the mug, then clasped my hands around themselves in a want to keep them still. "I already told you that my feelings are not going to change, and they are _not_, regardless of however many times you repeat yourself. Things aren't as black and white as you are making them out to be. I can't simply look at us and come to a realistic decision, because in reality there are so many other factors in play that you keep pushing aside. I refuse to do as you are doing and disregard my father, Jiao, my responsibilities… they are far too important to me to just ignore them.

"And anyway, if I were to accept your feelings and tried to come to love you, do you have any idea what would happen if we were discovered? I wouldn't be surprised if my father locked me up at home and never let me leave, even after I got married. I'd never see you again, and I know we'd both only regret what we'd done. I don't want that to happen…"

Slowly, I turned and looked at him. He made no sign that he'd noticed I'd moved, and continued to look downward to his knees. I didn't know whether to be relieved that he'd stopped arguing, or frightened that he wasn't replying, but instead pulled my legs up onto the cushions and leaned against him, drawing him into a hug. He stayed as he was.

"Heng," I pleaded, "I don't want to lose you… Please, just try to see things from my perspective. I'm only trying to protect you, regardless of how it seems that I'm doing nothing but thoughtlessly hurting you and putting more distance between us. As much as I wish to give you whatever you want and always make you happy, I can't do this…"

Several silent minutes passed, but he finally wrapped his arms around me, settling himself against me with a sigh. "Okay," he whispered miserably, "okay."

Smiling in relief, I tilted my head forward and rested it on top of his, briefly tightening my grip before letting go of him. We settled back down on the couch, and he leaned his head against my shoulder, closing his eyes. One of his hands slipped forward and took mine. He played with my fingers for a moment, then asked quietly, "Al, how come you don't love me?"

I squeezed his hand. "Don't start that again," I grumbled warningly.

"No, I mean… I'm not trying to argue more, but I'm just curious. Am I not handsome enough?" he teased. "I do admit it takes quite a bit for someone to match your beauty."

Rolling my eyes, I lightly slapped the side of his head. "Quit joking."

"I'm not!" he said, laughing slightly. "I've always thought that you're beautiful."

Thinking for a moment, I shrugged and let my head fall back against the couch cushions. "When we first met at the office, you were just another employee. As a rule, I try not to involve myself with anyone—man or woman—other than what association is appropriate for work. And then when we first met in-game, I thought you were a little boy. And, in case it needs clarification, I'm not interested in little boys. They're cute, and so is Dib, of course, but I'm definitely not interested in them. And as for after that… Well, somewhere along the way you shifted from 'annoying kid' to some brother-type figure, I guess. I'd never considered you as a romantic partner. And, no offense, but attempting to imagine something like that sounds creepy."

There was a pause, and he whispered, "Then, am I just a replacement for Gui?"

Surprise at his question quickly turned into amusement. Laughing, I shook my head. Heng glared up at me after a moment, then roughly bonked his forehead onto my shoulder, frowning in annoyance at my reaction. "I apologize for being rude, but I have to say that it's impossible for anyone, you included, to replace Gui Wen," I informed after I'd managed to control my chuckling, "nor was I ever expecting you to do that. You're you, and Gui Wen is… who he is. And anyway, you should know first-hand that someone can have more than one brother."

"Hrm," he mumbled. "So you think of me as a brother?"

"Yes."

"Perspectives change," he pointed out. "It's already happened before, why can't it again?"

"Other than all of those reasons I already gave you earlier? Well, do you think your perspective of one of your younger brothers would be so easily switched if one of them confessed their love for you? Not that I would ever think that would happen, but for argument's sake… Would you be able to return those feelings?"

Heng was silent for a long time again, then finally made a growling noise, shaking his head. "Why are you so good at beating down my arguments?" he pouted.

"Mm, I'm stubborn," I replied. Roughly shoving him off of me, I leaned forward and picked up my mug of tea while he limply flopped onto his side on the other half of the couch and made no effort to sit up again.

"You jerk." He gently kicked his legs at me and crossed his arms, looking very Dib-ish. I patted one of his feet and then took a long drink of my tea, smiling at his antics.

Early the next morning, I left Heng's house and arrived home again. Full of apprehension, I slipped through the front door and desperately hoped that my father was still asleep. I shut it quietly behind myself and stood silently for a moment in the dark entryway, listening for any movement. Nothing grabbed my attention, so I relaxed slightly and hurried up the stairs to change my clothes.

I didn't notice him until he was already right in front of me. Nearly screaming in surprise at his sudden appearance, I froze on the top step and stared into the furious eyes of my father. All of the relief I'd gotten from visiting Heng vanished in a moment. "Zian," he said, sounding bizarrely calm while anger was etched into every corner of his face. "Where have you been?"

Keeping my mouth firmly shut, I shook my head, refusing to reveal that I'd been with Heng. He may not have cared if my father fired him for being friends with me, but I was hellbent on protecting him.

"Where have you been?" he repeated slowly. When still I didn't answer, he sighed softly. "Well, perhaps you would like to explain this instead?"

He lifted his hand, and all of the blood drained out of my face when I saw my Second Life helmet hooked on one of his thin fingers. In my hurry to talk to Heng, I'd completely forgotten to hide it.

Heart pounding wildly, I looked back up at my father, unable to speak.

"WHAT IS THIS?" he bellowed at me, red in the face as he pushed the helmet under my nose. "YOU STUPID, USELESS BOY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING WASTING YOUR TIME WITH TRASH LIKE THIS?"

I couldn't breathe as he continued to shout, I could barely hear what he was saying through the loud roaring in my ears, I was having trouble seeing him when the edges of my vision started to blur when tears accumulated at the corners of my eyes.

There was nothing I could say or do to calm him down.

He threw the plastic gaming device at me, and suddenly his face started to get smaller. For a brief moment, I thought perhaps he was backing away. But as I watched while my helmet passed through the air above me, I knew that wasn't it. I couldn't help but smirk at the familiar situation as the entryway tilted upside down and the base of the stairs came rushing up to meet me.


	23. From the Eyes of Another

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note – **I wanted to write something from Dib's perspective… (the numbers are years)_

* * *

_**2 0 9 4**_

Eighteen. I felt so old, yet so young at the in-between age. I was no longer the care-free teenager who spent his days in high school classrooms with his friends. No, I had graduated, and now I had to face my future as an adult, even though I'd been a student only earlier that day. The sudden shift from childhood to adulthood was unsettling, but I supposed it was a normal feeling for someone at that time in their life.

I no longer had the classroom as a retreat from my already adult-like life, with as many part-time jobs as I could manage around studying and taking care of my three much younger siblings. Since my parents weren't alive anymore, everything was left up to me. It was difficult, but seeing the happy smiles of my six-year-old brothers was enough to keep me going every day.

Quickly hurrying along the roadside to get to the daycare where my brothers attended, a smile spread across my face in anticipation. They'd all been so excited over my very important day, and I'd agreed to buy a cake on the way home. As if they weren't already energetic enough without the sugar, I thought with amusement. But no matter, it was a special day, I could put up with a bit more screaming and hyperactivity than usual.

Their identically bright faces came into view as I walked around the corner of the flower-covered wall surrounding the daycare. Immediately, all three ran forward and collided with my legs, hopping up and down, happily greeting me. Moments like this were what made all my exhausting efforts worthwhile.

* * *

_**2 0 9 5**_

I'd been accepted into my first university choice, attending on a scholarship as I could barely afford to support my siblings and myself. But I'd worked as hard as I could in high school to be able to get to this point. I was determined to keep up the pace in the rather prestigious business school, for the sake of the triplets if not for myself. Regardless of the difficult class loads, school life was as fun as it always had been.

One part did concern me, though. Or perhaps it was more of a piquing of interest, rather than a concern. Being an older-brotherly person in general, I tried to make everyone in my classes feel like they were included. However, in a few of my classes there was one guy who always sat in the corner, never talking to anyone. His constant silence and blank facial expression were extremely intriguing to me. Why would someone want to spend their days like that when there was so much fun surrounding them?

I only had to ask one person to learn the man's name and a bit of his background. Min Zian, the second son of a very wealthy businessman. The opinion of Zian seemed to be consistent from person to person; he was quiet to the point of making one wonder if he was a mute, and difficult to approach. Those facts seemed to lead people to believe that Zian thought of himself as too important to associate with we from the lower rungs of the social ladder.

But as I tried to silence their purposefully just-loud-enough whispers about him, I couldn't help but notice the hurt that flashed across his face as he listened from his seat across the lecture hall. That alone dismissed any wondering if there was any truth to what the others had said. But why hadn't they noticed? And why wasn't he defending himself?

Curiosity started burrowing deeper in my mind.

* * *

Looking up and down one of the many long hallways of the university, I sighed with annoyance. Why did this place have to be so darn huge? Several months had passed since I'd first started attending here, yet the correct way to navigate the confusing layout of the business department's building was still a mystery to me. I didn't have a class I was attempting to get to that afternoon, at least not for a few hours yet, thankfully, but the library was evading me. I'd seen the entrance somewhere before, but I couldn't quite remember where.

Deciding to walk in a northern direction, I strode along, hoping I'd get a mental map of the corridors and locations of each classroom fixed in my head soon. It seemed I'd made the right choice as the large double doors labeled with "Library" came into sight within a few minutes.

Smiling faintly in relief, I quietly opened one of the doors, and stepped into the enormous, yet sparsely populated room filled with shelf after shelf of books, dotted with tables and comfy-looking chairs, and lined with top-of-the-line computers, all for the use of the students.

I gave a polite nod to a nearby librarian, and made my way toward the far corner of the library, out of the way where I'd be able to do my homework in peace until my next lecture time came around. It was difficult to find places where I could actually concentrate. Sometimes being so friendly with people was a nuisance when it came to getting my work done, since the more party-prone people took my good-naturedness as a sign that I was always there to be talked to and invited to places. A good nuisance mostly, but still a bit irritating from time to time when I had things to get done.

My feet came to a halt almost against my will when I emerged from between two of the long bookshelves and into view came the small line of tables set against the wall beside the wide, sunny windows overlooking the sprawling campus grounds. Taking a deep breath, I curiously watched the lone, sun-bathed occupant of the farthest table as he slowly turned the page of the thick textbook he was reading.

Zian. Diligently studying by himself, as always.

Ignoring all of the empty tables I could have sat at, I made my way toward his instead, and came to a halt across from him, leaning forward slightly to see what class's textbook it was that he was reading. Economics, one of the few classes I had with him. Perfect.

"Would you mind if I sat here?" I asked softly, smiling down at him as I patted a hand on the cushioned back of the empty chair in front of myself.

He looked up at last, staring at me with confusion swirling in his otherwise blank, black eyes, which at the moment were looking more of a golden color there in the bright sunlight pouring through the window.

I briefly froze, running my gaze over his thin, pale face. There had to be some sort of law against a person—especially a _man_—being so beautiful. If he had been more social, who knew how many other people would have been sitting at this very table at this very moment, if only to stare at him while he worked. I wasn't interested in men, I'd had my share of girlfriends in the past, yet I kept feeling mysterious twinges of attraction toward him. Give him a rounder face, shorter stature, long hair, and breasts and he'd make one hell of a woman. He already looked quite feminine, regardless of his obviously male components.

"Why?" Zian finally inquired with suspicion, graciously breaking through my incredibly strange string of thoughts and sounding extremely reluctant to allow me to join him. I couldn't really blame him for it, after how the others in class had treated him so coldly for no good reason.

Slipping off my backpack, I unzipped the largest pouch and pulled out my own battered textbook, showing it to him. "I'm in the same economics class as you, so I thought maybe we could work together on the assignment the professor gave us this morning," I explained brightly. "I bet the work will go faster with two people."

He slowly shook his head, much like I'd been expecting, though I'd been hoping for the opposite response. "Thank you for the offer, but I prefer to work on my own," he answered quietly, dropping his eyes to his open book. "There are many people in that class, I am sure you will have no difficulty finding someone else to collaborate with."

Zian's dismissal was clear, yet all I could think about at that moment was how much he'd just said. He really could speak entire sentences. It was an odd thought to have, but I couldn't recall him ever saying anything more than one or two words at a time, if that. He had a very nice voice, somewhat husky and deep, yet thin and whispery—that might have been because we were in the library—with a polite, elegant, and mature tone. Though he and I were only nineteen, he spoke like a full-fledged adult, very unlike the multitudes of uncouth, loud-mouthed teenagers surrounding us on campus every day. Yet another trait of his that I was positive many women would have adored him for if he had been friendlier.

"That's true, but I'd still like to work with you," I persisted, causing him to briefly look back up.

"No, thank you," he promptly refused, once again turning his attention to his book.

Feeling a bit deflated by his prickly defenses, but still very determined to befriend him, I gave in for now. "Okay, well, maybe next time. See you later, then," I said, waving my hand as I made to leave.

"Goodbye," Zian flatly replied, not bothering to look up and watch me go.

I settled down several tables away from him, far enough to give him his space, but close enough so that I'd still be able to see him. Quite a bit of time passed while I silently observed him reading and taking notes. It was kind of bizarre seeing someone so completely focused on such a tedious textbook. It was like he was in a trance, reading page after page, taking such neat and detailed notes along the way without any sign that he was getting bored or tired.

Sighing to myself, I finally opened my own textbook to work on that assignment for a while until I had to leave for my next class, still wishing a bit that Zian had let me sit with him.

* * *

_**2 0 9 8**_

I felt as though the four years spent at the university went by in a flash. I hadn't ever gotten the chance to get to know Zian, however. I'd tried to talk to him over and over, but he'd brushed me off every time, no matter my approach. I'd eventually stopped bothering him for fear I was going to make him angry, though I still couldn't help but stare at him whenever he had been around. That had resulted in also getting picked on a bit by our classmates, but I knew they were only teasing for fun, and didn't take it personally.

Other than myself and a few of the professors, I hadn't noticed anyone else attempt to really speak to Zian throughout the whole four years. Small talk here and there, but no one tried to actually converse with him. There was a lot of staring due to his good looks, but his popsicle of a personality was well-known, even amongst the newer students. He hadn't attempted to talk to anyone else, either. A mutual exchange of snubbing. I couldn't understand his acceptance for the solitude.

But, once he and I graduated, I had no more chances to ponder such things. My busy school years may have finally been over, but I still had my younger brothers to take care of, and a job to find. The enigma that was Min Zian became a thing of the past, and no longer entered my mind. It was probably the same for him, anyway.

* * *

_**2 1 0 0**_

I got a steady job at last, two years after graduation. The job itself sounded boring, but the salary was rather nice, allowing me more relief toward all my numerous living costs. The triplets used some of their own savings to buy me a gift in congratulations for getting hired. It was a virtual reality game called Second Life that had been released that summer. I was very grateful for their thoughtfulness. Though, knowing them, I was fairly certain a large part of their incentive for buying the game was so that they could play, too.

While creating my Second Life character, I let myself fall into the obvious meaning of the game's name; a second life. What would I want in an alternate life? My thoughts inadvertently shot to how quickly I'd been required to grow up after my parents died when I was fourteen, not even out of secondary school yet. Even during the years while they were still alive, I had to take care of the triplets quite a bit, because both of my parents had always worked full-time. And though I wasn't resentful in the slightest toward my brothers for needing me to provide for them, since we had no close relatives, and no distant ones who were willing to take us in, thus leaving everything to me, I still felt like I'd been deprived of something precious. Something everyone else simply had.

A childhood.

I made myself the smallest, cutest race I could find; a halfling. The nostalgic sight nearly brought tears to my eyes as he looked quite a bit like my brothers had when they were so tiny and adorable, attending the daycare near our house… Not that I didn't still think they were tiny and adorable so many years later, though they would have definitely denied any such accusation.

They were also the source of the halfling's name. "Dibs" had always been their favorite word, the all-around magical word they seemed to think made anything and everything they wanted exclusively theirs, regardless of what it was and to who it really belonged.

And so I became Dib, a childish little boy. Leveling up and getting expensive equipment were extremely simple tasks, since the majority of the women who saw me seemed to think I was a helpless kid who needed assistance. Not particularly caring either way, I took them all up on their offers for helping me in my fights. But after a month of enduring their irritating fawning and cooing, I grew tired of their annoying company, and struck off on my own.

It was at that time that I was reunited with a person I'd thought I'd forgotten all about. Yet when I saw him again, all of the old intrigue immediately sparked to life like it had never gone out in the first place.

After a short orientation period, I'd been assigned to a department at work and my boss was my incomprehensible university classmate, Zian. He was as blank as ever, rarely speaking to anyone and staying in his office all day, unless he was called by his father, or something of that sort.

It seemed as though his reputation for being easily hated had followed him from school to the office. Apparently he'd been hired directly after graduation, thus angering those who had already been there for years and years, working for a promotion that they now had no hope at gaining, since Zian had taken the spot without earning it, in their opinion. In a want not to cause conflict, I didn't argue with them, though I knew how hard he'd worked himself during our college years, but instead simply tried to change the topic of conversation.

I found my eyes trailing after Zian whenever he walked past my desk, and anxious concern welled up in me as I saw how tired he often looked. His demanding father and numerous disrespectful employees were doing nothing positive for his seemingly already-poor health. However, I didn't attempt to talk to him about it, since I already knew I'd be pushed away, just like everyone else.

* * *

In-game, I settled in Sun City, training by myself in the dense woods near the city's eastern gate. It was quiet out there, and allowed me time to think. Zian had seemed rather odd lately, and I was burning with curiosity to know what had caused the change. The seemingly emotionless man had actually momentarily had a tiny smile on his face a few days ago, though it had disappeared a split second later. I'd known him for so many years, but not once had I seen him smile. It made me feel a bit happy, too, to know that he had something to smile about at last.

Wandering to the edge of the dark forest, I slowly made my way toward the city to refresh my potions and sell some loot. Hopping lightly through the long grass and colorful wildflowers, I paused a moment and interestedly looked up, squinting my eyes to stare at the sunny sky when I heard the beating of wings coming from high above my head. It sounded like quite the huge bird, and I wondered if I could battle it for something more exciting to do than kill bears.

My eyes widened in shock as I watched, not a bird, but _him_ soar past, darting easily through the puffy clouds as he flapped his enormous, black wings, a contented smile brightening his captivatingly beautiful face. My trip to the city completely forgotten, I stared after Zian, mouth ajar, as he disappeared all too soon into the distance, presumably flying in the direction of the cliffs I knew were several miles east of the city. What in the world was he doing here? I'd never thought he was the type of person to play a game. But, thinking of how stifling his real life seemed, I could hardly blame him.

That explained why he'd looked so different.

* * *

Now I'd done it. Zian was angry at me. Extremely angry. I'd never seen him glare at someone before. It was rather terrifying, being on the receiving end of such a furious expression.

All I'd done was say he looked lively, and in return he gave me an absolutely enraged stare like he wanted nothing more at that moment than to take the report I'd just delivered to him and cram it down my throat.

Hours later in-game, he still seemed somewhat peevish as I watched him from the outskirts of the woods while he flew toward Sun City. Feeling a bit shaken up at his bizarre response to what I'd meant as a compliment, I wandered back into the wood to find something to kill while I attempted to sort out what had happened.

My distracting thoughts led to getting chased by four bears, three of which had sneaked up on me while I'd been trying to kill the other one. Retreat seemed like the only option in that particular situation, since my health was running low and theirs wasn't.

That was when he unexpectedly came to my rescue, flying me safely to the top of a tree. I felt somewhat scared of him, wondering if he'd somehow recognized me, wondering if he was still mad at me for what I'd said, wondering if his personality was as icy as it was in real life.

In my defensive blabbering, I made him mad again by accident and discovered that he was indeed very cold. But he'd still saved me, though he didn't seem to know who I was, so I supposed he couldn't be _completely_ indifferent.

Seeing the never-before-given opportunity to befriend him wriggling right in front of me, I took it and eagerly asked if he would be my teammate, completely expecting him to decline, yet he agreed. But maybe that had been because I wouldn't let go of his arm, refusing to let him escape so easily.

Thus I made it my new hobby to test the limits of his patience. His reactions to my purposefully annoying behavior were extremely amusing. I found Aeolus to be far more temperamental, yet warmer and more expressive than Zian was, though still very guarded and cautious.

The more time went by that he treated me like a little kid, the further I fell into my childish personality. Though, as I got to know him better, I found that our roles were actually rather backward. While I was mostly pretending for the fun of it, he was genuinely quite childish and naïve, though he seemed not to notice. But I let him act like the grownup in the situation, thoroughly enjoying how he willingly and quickly indulged my every want, no matter how ridiculous.

Often I asked myself why I loved his pampering so much, when those women I'd been training with at first had been so irritating. Though Aeolus was nothing like them in terms of his personality—he usually complained about how selfish I was, while the women had simply cooed about my adorableness, yanked on my cheeks and smothered me with bone-crushing hugs—the outcome was basically the same thing. However, I craved more and more of his attention as time passed, and I definitely didn't want to leave him as I had the others.

But the shallow women had only seen a cute kid to play with like a doll.

Aeolus saw a friend.

* * *

I hummed to myself as Aeolus and I walked along side by side through the extensive grasslands a few miles south of Sun City. As usual, he wasn't talking, and was instead gazing straight ahead, barely even blinking at regular intervals. Weren't his eyes getting dried out? Geeze.

I fished around in my mind for an interesting conversation topic to which he would actually respond. Shooting him a glance, I smiled playfully. "Hey, Al."

He started slightly as if I'd interrupted some important thought or another, and looked down at me with his trademark blank stare. "Yes?"

"Guess how old I am!" I said, drawing a bewildered expression out onto his face. Inwardly chuckling, I watched as he turned to look back to where we were walking and he frowned. I hoped he would put two and two together and finally recognize me. After all, we saw each other every single day in real life, yet he hadn't noticed. But he was so dense, I wasn't really surprised.

Several minutes passed by in silence, and he finally gave me a calculating glance. "I assume that, since you are telling me to guess, you are not the age you look."

"Yep," I confirmed with a nod, feeling amused at how seriously he was taking my suggestion. Then again, he took _everything_ seriously.

"…Ten?" he asked, smirking slightly.

"Too low. Try again," I said.

"Eleven?"

"No."

"Twelve?"

I slapped his leg with feigned annoyance. He was barely even trying.

Aeolus sighed, gazing down at me with disbelievingly lowered eyebrows. "Surely not higher?"

"Surely," I echoed solemnly.

"…Sixteen?" he ventured after another pause.

"Nope! Keep going," I prodded with a shake of my head.

"Fifty?"

Okay, now he really wasn't trying at all.

"No, stupid! I'm not a grandpa! Lower than that, but higher than the others!"

He gave me a wondering look as if he thought I was joking with him. "How old are you?" he asked, abruptly giving up.

"You're s'pose to _guess_!" I snapped, pushing him lightly.

Aeolus acted like he hadn't noticed that he'd almost fallen over, and continued walking, running his fingers down the strap of his quiver. "I do not want to," he muttered.

Heaving a sigh, I rolled my eyes and stomped through the grass after him while he purposefully lengthened his stride. "I'm twenty-four!"

I nearly collided with the back of his long legs when he stopped without warning and looked down at me in complete and utter dubiety. "You are not."

"I am!" I insisted, indignantly staring up at him.

A rare smile twitched at the corner of his mouth and he turned away from me, resuming his quick pace. He laughed for a moment and shook his head, looking like he thought it was absurd that a person such as I was the same age as he.

I watched him walk away, feeling disappointed and hurt that he still hadn't recognized me. Was it really so difficult to find me behind my childish mask?

* * *

Zian dragged me along with him on a spontaneous business trip to T City. I spent the whole airplane ride agonizing over the question of why he'd picked me. After all, he seemed to hate my real-life self, but I wondered if he'd finally realized that I was Dib. However, seeing the disinterested way he looked at me once we were alone in our hotel room, I knew he hadn't.

While he showered, I attempted to think up a way to tell him. I was feeling extremely nervous for some reason, and his blank-mindedness seemed to be contagious. I ordered room service for something to do—just a bowl of fruit, because I knew he probably wouldn't have eaten anything else—and waited restlessly for him to finish in the bathroom. He finally emerged nearly an hour after he'd gone in, giving me a very reluctant look as he sat down at the table.

Forcing a bright smile onto my face, I watched as he started carefully cutting up an apple. The urge to run around the edge of the table and furiously demand that he explain to me the countless scars and bruises all over his _far_-too-skinny body was roaring through my head, but I stayed in my seat, trying to calm myself down. What the hell kind of family did he have? No wonder he was so timid and quiet, getting treated like that.

Guilt seeped into my mind as I recalled all the times _I'd_ hit him so carelessly. Was that why he put up with it? He was used to such rough, violent treatment? It wasn't that I'd been trying to hurt him, but it must have hurt, anyway.

I tried to act cheerful, regardless of being inwardly horrified at my thoughtlessness, and was somewhat relieved when he seemed convinced of my charade.

Early the next morning, I was startled awake when Zian started screaming in his sleep. I jumped out of bed and hurried to his, trying to wake him. He looked so terrified, I didn't even realize at first that I'd accidentally used his nickname. Though I was extremely worried about him, I couldn't help but laugh in my happiness when, due to my mistake, he finally realized who I was, except that only made him angry yet again.

I felt as though I was finally getting closer to him after such a long time. And I still didn't quite understand it, but that wistful thought got caught in my head as easily as my breath continually got caught in my throat whenever his pretty eyes met mine.

The abrupt realization of how hard I'd unknowingly fallen for him hit me not long after that.

* * *

I watched in helplessness as Aeolus fought through problem after problem; he'd been even more quiet after we returned from our business trip, but I failed to brighten his mood; we met the Odd Squad in Star City, but then his brother forced us to leave almost immediately; I lost my temper when he refused to listen to me, and I hurt him yet again; he finally told me a bit of childhood, and my anger toward his family and their cruel treatment of him only deepened.

Afterward, we'd gone back to Star City to find Gui and the others while they were training in the mountains, but I once again took out my frustration on Aeolus, causing him to leave the mountains on his own. Regardless of my worry over what he was going through, I was inwardly screaming in anger over how he continued to treat me as a child, not as an adult, though I knew it was partially my fault.

I wanted him to rely on me, to complain to me, to help me understand what he was thinking. But, even with everything I tried to do for him, he was still so distant, shouldering everything on his own and treating me as if I was the one who needed the support. It was endlessly infuriating. And, though I knew how fragile he was, in my anger I refused to keep babying him, much like he kept doing with me.

But when Gui pushed Aeolus aside again on our way back to Star City, I tried to put my own discomfort out of mind and did my best to keep him in high spirits. My efforts didn't seem to do much, and I was at a loss as to what I should do to make him happy.

I hated seeing him so filled with despair.

* * *

I was briefly relieved when Aeolus logged into the game one evening, looking like he was in a very rare good mood. My own mood was lifted as well when I saw his warm smile. But when the source of his happiness appeared in the form of a young woman he seemed to know in real life, I felt as though my place by his side had suddenly been stolen away.

Jealousy, something I hadn't felt very often in the past—I was a "father" of three, I couldn't be selfish with my possessions and whine when I didn't get something I wanted—suddenly raged through me when I watched them talk to one another alone on a hilltop when we went to train in the wetlands near Moon City. I'd felt slightly uncomfortable twinges of anger whenever Aeolus had talked so easily to Prince, and when he'd quickly agreed to carry Doll around when she'd asked, but I knew he had no special feelings toward either them, so I'd put up with it. Yet why was he acting so familiar with Jiū? Why was she able to cheer him up so easily when I was barely able to pull a real smile out of him anymore?

Though I knew all too well that Aeolus would get angry with me, I interrupted them as soon as I could, thoroughly despising the entranced way he'd been looking at her, not unlike the way I knew I looked at him. It was painfully obvious that he was attracted to her. Why couldn't it have been me? After all of my efforts, why _wasn't_ it me? He was mine, and I wasn't about to give him up so easily.

My worst fears were confirmed when Aeolus told me about his engagement to her. I didn't know how to react to his news, which he carelessly delivered in a way that told me he'd been stupidly expecting me to be happy for him. Why in the world would I be happy that he was being taken away from me? Was he really so blind?

He'd promised that he'd never leave me… Did that mean nothing to him?

* * *

Now as I looked down on him while he peacefully slept in my bed, I knew how he really felt. Not that I hadn't been aware already, even without having to be told. After all, with all of my countless advances on him, he'd never responded once. He'd never noticed the feelings behind my behavior, which he'd always seen as me simply being a "clingy child". I'd continued to let him believe the lie. I hadn't wanted to lose him. Staying with him as a friend was the only way to keep him there. But I'd still desperately hoped he would eventually develop feelings for me. It now seemed as though those hopes had been completely useless.

I was filled with regret that I hadn't told him a long time ago that I loved him. If I'd been more honest and open with him, perhaps things would have been different. I could have been the one who stood beside him. Not Jiao. I'd worked so hard to claw my way up to that spot in his life. Did all of my efforts amount to nothing in the end?

Yet if I'd told him, would he have still stayed by me? Would he have ever come to love me? After the flat-out rejection he gave me earlier that evening, I highly doubted it. But if I had done it earlier, if I'd been more clear with my intentions before Jiao had come into his life, if I'd simply told him… If I'd had more time… If he'd accepted my feelings, and returned them…

But he hadn't, and that tore me apart. He was so willing to give me anything and everything I asked for, no matter what it was, except for himself. His love. And I wanted it so much.

Quickly getting to my feet, I left my bedroom and shut the door behind myself so I didn't have to face the numerous temptations, which came with such a place, and such a person. The idiot had absolutely no self-awareness—how many times had it been now that he'd gotten naked in front of me without a thought? Well, never completely naked, but still. I could easily fill in the blanks with as little as he'd been wearing at times. He had so very little modesty when it came to his body.

And watching him in such a thoughtlessly defenseless state was endlessly torturous. Didn't he know what I was going through with him there? Just because I said I wouldn't force him into anything didn't mean I wasn't thinking about it.

Simply glancing at him at any given moment made me want to draw him into an embrace and kiss him all over, as well as doing countless other things, besides. But our nights together in-game, filled with hours of having him carry me everywhere, holding his hand, playing with his long, silky hair, casually running my fingers over the smooth stretches of his pale skin, they were gone. I couldn't bear the thought of what would happen if I overstepped my boundaries now that he knew.

Face burning, I hurried downstairs to the living room to sleep on the couch while I attempted to clear my mind of Zian. Relocating myself so far away hadn't helped erase the annoyingly automatic reaction my body had at the thought of him being in my bed, of all places, especially now that I'd kissed him and couldn't get the intoxicating taste of him out of my mouth, even after thoroughly brushing my teeth. Twice.

Regardless of my chaotic mental state, I eventually managed to slip into a restless sleep.

He left early the next morning before the horizon was even starting to lighten, sending me a brief, concerned look before he drove away. I slowly shut the front door and wondered how I'd survive after this. The thought of being around him but not being able to touch him was suffocating. The thought of watching him with Jiao made me want to smash things.

But I just wanted him to be happy.

Even if I'm not the reason for his happiness, he'll always be mine.

* * *

_The song Congratulations by Blue October was running through my head the whole time I was writing this. o-o  
_

_I wanted to give you something I've been wanting to give to you for years; my heart. _  
_My heart, my pain won't cover up. You left me. My heart can't take this cover up. You left me._  
_I can't change this. I can never take it back, but now I can't change your mind…_


	24. Forgotten

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

My arm was broken in three places, or so a doctor had told me after I'd woken up in my bed some number of hours after falling down the stairs. My left arm. My dominant arm. Of course it would be my dominant arm. How was I supposed to sign those stupid reports at work if I couldn't write? My place at my father's company had vanished, and laughter suddenly bubbled up at the thought of how useless I was. Not that it was funny in the slightest, I supposed.

I nearly laughed, but my chest hurt too much to make any noise just yet, so I didn't. I felt as though several of my ribs had stabbed through my lungs when I'd landed at the bottom of the stairs, rendering me incapable of breathing, much less talking.

Tears pooled on my eyelids and dripped off when I attempted to turn my head to look around my unusually sunny bedroom. My head hurt so much. My arm hurt. My chest hurt. All of the rest of me hurt. Stupid pain. Somehow, it felt familiar, and I wondered just when something of this sort had happened. I'd fallen down stairs before, but that didn't seem to be where the similarity was.

Blue sky above me as I'd fallen…and grass…

Not feeling up to thinking very much, I decided not to dwell on it. It seemed like something I'd dreamed up, anyway. As if I'd fallen out of the sky. What a weird thought. I mentally snorted in disbelief at the absurdity of such a thing happening.

I stared hard at the woman sitting beside me, attempting to get her attention without making any noise. I wondered vaguely who she was. She was wearing a plain, white dress, not the dark, starched uniform of our house staff. Anyway, if she was one of the maids, she wouldn't be sitting on my chair, reading one of my brother's books.

Several long moments of looking at her later, I gasped slightly as I finally realized who it was; Jiao was sitting by my bed. Bewilderment filled me when I wondered why in the world I hadn't recognized her, if even briefly.

She jumped off my chair at the tiny noise I'd made, and stared at me fearfully. She then ran out of the room, dropped the book she'd been holding, and shouted at someone that I was awake. My skull pounded at the loud noises she'd made, and I let my head revert back to its original position, giving a gasp of pain when my neck protested against the movement.

"Please, wait! He needs his rest–"

"Get out of the way," my father's deep voice cut across Jiao's fretful words, and I heard several sets of footsteps approach my bed. His face came into view a moment later, giving me an annoyed stare. "Zian?"

I simply looked at him, wondering what he could possibly want _now_. Was he going to yell at me for getting injured when he'd been the one who pushed me down the stairs in the first place? I wouldn't put it past him. Everything was always my fault in his eyes. It was all my fault…

Wait a minute. What had I done? My mind reeled briefly as I tried to remember what he'd been yelling at me about. He'd thrown something at me before I'd fallen. What was it?

"Zian, you are being moved to the Lin estate," my father informed me promptly, gesturing toward my bedroom. "Your things are being packed as we speak."

"What?" Jiao suddenly exclaimed. "He needs to go to a hospital!"

"No, he does not," he digressed blandly, moving out of my field of vision. "He was going to go live in your home eventually, anyway. We might as well pack up and have him do so now, since he will not need his things while he is incapable of going to work."

As their voices and footsteps faded away, I stared up at my ceiling, feeling hot tears, which had little to do with the horrendous pain of my injuries, spill down my temples and run into my ears, drowning out the sounds of people unwantedly moving my things around.

He was getting rid of me. Now that I'd served my purpose for getting close to the Lin family, I wasn't useful to him anymore. Was I really so worthless?

Gritting my teeth, I struggled to sit up and squeezed my eyes shut against the pain stabbing through my body. I had to stop the movers. I didn't want to leave. I couldn't leave. Why was he so cold? Why did he hate me so much? There must have been something I could do to make him take back his choice. How could I prove myself to him?

How could I make him love me?

I nearly fell out of bed, but someone caught me with a surprised yell, and gently pushed me back onto my blankets. "Why are you trying to stand up?" a voice whispered almost angrily, but I barely heard it.

My eyes darted to the open doorway of my office where I could see my father talking to some man in a mover's uniform. There were boxes all over my office floor. I had to get to him. I had to stop him before it was too late. But I couldn't sit up. What…

Glancing down, I glared at the small hands which were pressed against me, holding me in place. Who was holding me down?

Looking up in bewilderment, I frowned at a woman. Her face was covered in worry. Why was she holding me down? Why was she in my bedroom, anyway? She didn't look like she was with the movers, or with the house staff.

"Stop," I managed to gasp, not really sure as to who I'd been directing the word toward. I blinked several times. Little black spots were starting to float in front of my eyes, and they wouldn't go away. A buzzing was sounding in my ears, joining in with the deafening noise of the people swarming about my bedroom.

"…Zian? Zian, wake up!"

"What is wrong?"

"He…wake…can't hear…"

A rough hand was put on my forehead, and I fell backward, closing my eyes while my awareness of what was going on slipped away from me yet again.

Two weeks passed.

I'd been given a nice room in Jiao's home. The house was so alive. Lots of people, lots of sunshine, lots of plants. A very wonderful, warm place. But I wanted to go home. I felt slightly confused at myself for so strongly desiring to return. I'd hated that cold, unfeeling house. However, I kept seeing flashes of my father's apathetic face as he'd looked at me for the last time, and the want to gain his approval grew again and again.

Slipping cautiously across the bedroom, I glanced at Jiao, and then crouched down on the smooth wooden floor by the pile of cardboard boxes that had been placed in one corner. I'd been wanting to unpack my things on my own, rather than having the house staff do it for me. Feeling rather bored since I'd done nothing those past two weeks, aside from sitting about the house, healing, I thought perhaps now was a good time.

But I was a bit confused when I ran my right hand over the top of the first box. Why were there so few? A couple had already been opened and sorted through for changes of clothing and such, but there were only three left.

After ripping off the packing tape, I quickly opened the box on top. Neatly folded stacks of winter clothing stared up at me. I pushed the box to the floor, carefully so it didn't tip over in my clumsy, one-handed grip, then I opened the second. Random things I'd had in my closet—an old camera and its equipment, a shoe box containing a battered-looking sketch book and also little folded-up bits of paper covered in drawings I'd made, a small, metallic tin with pencils inside, a thin wooden box containing my numerous neckties, several pairs of shoes, and a few other things, besides.

Feeling a bit worried, I pushed that box of the way and opened the last. My computer was inside.

My heart sank as I stared down at the box of electronics. "Jiao?" I called, worriedly looking at her over my shoulder.

She stood from her seat by the window where she'd been arranging yellow flowers in a small vase, and hurried over to me. "What's wrong?"

"Where are all of my brother's books?" I asked, looking back down at the three boxes. "The books in my office at…at home."

"Those weren't packed," Jiao explained slowly. "Did you need one?"

"No," I answered, "but I want them. They're Gui Wen's books, I can't get rid of them."

"Okay," she said quickly, lightly patting my right shoulder. "I'll arrange to have them brought here."

"Thank you," I breathed in relief while she gave me a small kiss on my cheek before hurrying to the bedroom door. I smiled after her for a moment, and then stood up. She'd been so patient with me since I'd come to live here.

I felt somewhat startled when a young man stepped into my room when Jiao opened the door. He gave me a brief glance, and then leaned closer to Jiao, his face looking slightly worried. He was familiar…One of the servants? I bit my lip as I tried to remember.

"How is he today?" the man whispered. I turned away and wandered toward the window seat, pretending not to hear. The constant whispering was getting on my nerves. It was like they thought I wasn't capable of participating. But if they felt the need for whatever reason not to include me in the conversation, I wasn't going to butt in.

"The same, I suppose," Jiao answered softly. I felt a stab of guilt at how worn-out she sounded. "He finally opened the boxes, though."

The man made a humming noise. "That's good." They were silent for a few minutes, and I ventured a small look in their direction. I quickly turned back around when I noticed they were staring at me.

"He's still forgetting things?"

"Yes…"

They left the room, talking to one another, and I glanced somewhat forlornly at the empty doorway, wondering where Jiao was going. Perhaps to get the books, I thought, feeling a bit better. It wasn't like I absolutely needed to have them, or that I was even going to read them for fun, but they were still very important to me, holding sentimental value. Anyway, Gui Wen might want them back at some point, and I wanted to keep them nearby if he asked. Though that meant I actually had to have him around to ask me, and I had no idea where he was.

My eyes drifted back to the boxes and I frowned slightly. There was an itchy feeling in the back of my mind, like something else was missing other than my brother's books. Something important. But I couldn't remember what. Then again, I couldn't remember quite a lot these days. I often forgot Jiao, too, though I'd usually faintly remember after some thought. My forgetfulness was getting better, or so Jiao had told me, but getting introduced to people and needing them to explain what was going on over and over was endlessly annoying.

I jumped as Jiao reentered the room several minutes later, holding a tea tray. She paused at my reaction and then started forward again, slower than before. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," she said quietly in a soothing sort of voice, setting the tray down on the window seat beside me and glancing up at me cautiously. I gave her a short nod in response, feeling a bit silly for being so twitchy all of the time. My eyes snagged on her left arm. Two weird-looking goggle things were looped over her elbow.

She removed them from her arm, then held one out to me. Looking up at her for a moment, I took it from her hand and stared at it. It looked familiar, and I wondered if I'd owned one. "What is this?"

Jiao sat down on the window seat, crossing her legs as she got comfortable. "A Second Life gaming device," she answered, pouring tea into the little blue cups on the tray. Rather than giving me one right away, instead she pushed a glass of water toward me, along with a small assortment of pills.

"Second Life," I echoed, eyes widening as I ran my hand over the smooth, transparent plastic. I'd heard of that. Hadn't I seen an advertisement for it in the electronics store?

"You used to play it," she explained, looking hopefully between the helmet and I.

"I did…" I agreed vaguely, setting the game down in front of myself and picking up my medication. Quickly gulping down the pills with the glass of water, I glanced back at the game helmet. A meadow briefly flashed into my mind. Bright blue skies, soft breezes, lovely clouds…

I ran my hand through my messy hair for a moment. "I had long hair," I observed thoughtfully, and then looked up at Jiao. "Didn't I?" She smiled widely, nodding in a relieved way. I excitedly looked back down. I'd remembered something else.

Tapping a finger on the game, I glanced at Jiao. "May I try it?"

"Yes, of course," she consented happily. "That's why I brought it in here. I thought maybe it'd help you remember some things. And give you something to do," she ended with a slight shrug.

"Oh." I slowly sipped on my hot tea, staring contemplatively at the device and feeling somewhat subdued. What would my father think if he saw me playing this? He definitely wouldn't approve. But apparently he'd moved me here two weeks ago. I wondered if he was still keeping an eye on what I was doing, regardless of the distance. Knowing him, there was a good chance that he was.

Ignoring my hesitation, I drank the rest of my tea and picked the device up in one hand, quickly slipping it on over my eyes. "Is this how it goes?" I asked, squinting at Jiao through the goggles.

She nodded in amusement, and set her teacup down as she put her own headset on. "You'd best lay down," she warned solemnly, waving at the cushioned window seat. "Unless you prefer falling over."

Raising an eyebrow slightly, I nodded in return. Carefully laying myself down, I arranged my left arm's sling on the top of my chest, and then turned to watch Jiao while she laid down beside me. She gave me a small smile and pushed a button on the side of my headset. "See you in a moment."

Involuntarily, my eyes closed and Jiao vanished from sight. Blinking in surprise, I glanced around the large, grassy hill I was suddenly standing on. I'd forgotten how abrupt the entrance to the game was.

I tilted my head back to look up at the starry nighttime sky, unsure of where Jiao was and what I should do next. Experimentally lifting my left arm, I was somewhat surprised when no pain shot through it. Quickly tucking my hair behind my left ear, I dragged my fingertips over the rounded shape and slipped them down to my small silver earring. My lips parted slightly as I tugged on it for a moment. Hadn't someone else yanked on it before?

Feeling a bit curious as to where I was, I walked up to the top of the moonlight-bathed hill I'd been standing on the side of, and ran my eyes over the scenery. There was a very misty-looking area to my left, and what I supposed was a town a ways ahead of me, barely visible on the nearly-black horizon. There was no one in sight. Wasn't there usually someone around…? Surely there were other players, somewhere. Maybe they were all in that town. Moon City, I thought after a moment. That's where I was.

I turned around to look about myself again, feeling pleased with my remembrance. But where was Jiao?

"AL!"

Violently jumping in shock at the sudden scream from the bottom of the hill, I looked down in fright as a tiny boy suddenly stampeded toward me through the long grass, small shrubs, and the occasional tree. Eyes widening, I took several steps backward, nearly tripping over a rock, while he hurried up the steep slope.

"AL!" he yelled, happiness shining on his chubby face when he cleared the top of the rise with bounding strides. "AL, YOU'RE ALI-I-IVE!"

Without thinking, I strained the muscles in my shoulders, then felt somewhat shocked when a large pair of black wings suddenly and very unexpectedly erupted from my back. Well, those were helpful.

I prepared to take off into the air and escape before he could reach me, but he surprisingly managed to slide to a stop several feet away, breathing heavily. I'd felt sure he was going to tackle me to the ground, especially with the rate at which he'd been running.

"Al, no fair flying away! Where have you _been_?" he demanded, looking thoroughly annoyed with me for some unknown reason. "Why haven't you been to work? Why's someone taken your office? Why haven't you been answering your cellphone? I called you like a bazillion times, but you never picked up! Why haven't you been logging into the game? Did you go on another business trip? A super long one this time? Geeze! I thought you were gonna miss the Grand Melee! It's tomorrow, you know! You still wanna go and watch Gui compete, right?"

Feeling like I was drowning in his questions, I took a bewildered step back. "Gui?" I repeated, eyebrows drawing together. "Gui Wen plays Second Life, too?"

The boy's face went blank as he continued to look up at me. "What kind of a question is that? Of course he does." He took a step closer, and I immediately took another step back. His eyes narrowed slightly at my guarded retreat. "Al, quit acting like I'm gonna rape you, geeze. You're so mean."

I simply stared at him, wondering if he'd really just said what I thought he had.

The corners of his mouth turned downward when I didn't reply. "Are you okay?"

"I…" I started, but didn't know what to tell him. I was more interested in who he was and how he knew me, rather than if I was okay or not, since I already knew I wasn't.

Another long pause stretched out, and I finally raised an eyebrow at him. "Who are you?"


	25. Whose is the Blame

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

"What do you mean, who am I?" the boy standing in front of me demanded, staring up at me in disbelief. "What in the world is wrong with you?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't remember you," I explained hesitantly. Had he already introduced himself in the past two weeks? Perhaps that's why he was so annoyed with me, and I wouldn't have been surprised if that was the case, seeing as how I had to become reacquainted with people in a matter of hours. Then again, if he'd already told me, he wouldn't be asking what was wrong.

His face suddenly fell into one of fury and shock. Stepping toward me, he grabbed my wrist. I flinched at the rough movement, afraid that he was going to hit me, and tried to take my hand away, but he was too strong. Why did he look so angry?

"Al, what happened after you left my house? What'd that bastard do to you?"

I shook my head at him, not knowing what he was talking about. I winced when pain shot up my arm from his tight grip, and once again tried to pry his little fingers off.

"Dib!" a voice called from above us. Relief flooded through me when I looked up at the black sky and saw Jiao finally arriving from the direction of Moon City. The boy immediately let go of me and took several hurried steps backward. She landed on the ground and gave the boy a worried look, folding her white wings against her back.

"Jiū, what's wrong with Al?" he yelled, pointing at me.

"There was an accident," she said quickly. "H-he fell… down the stairs at his father's house."

The boy, Dib apparently, looked up at me again, fear flickering through his blue eyes. "Accident?" he whispered.

I wordlessly stared down at him and rubbed my bruising wrist while his hands clenched around themselves. I wouldn't have called it an accident. More like attempted murder. But I didn't know how much the boy knew about me, so I didn't want to tell him what really happened.

Quickly turning away, I started walking downhill toward the city. The boy had said Gui was here somewhere, and I wanted to see him. Perhaps I'd already met with him at some point, but I couldn't remember anything about it. And apparently he was competing in some contest or another tomorrow. Maybe if I got to him quick enough, I'd have time to see him beforehand.

"Al?" Dib falteringly called after me. I shot him a glance over my shoulder, pausing in my steps. His face paled, uncertainty filling his expression. "You really don't remember me?"

I shook my head, and turned back around to resume my walk to Moon City. Did he really have to ask? As if I'd be pretending like I didn't remember him, I thought with a roll of my eyes. It was already difficult enough trying to act like I knew unknown people whenever they talked to me.

Halting my feet on the dark slope, I stared in annoyance at the distance between myself and the city. Why was I walking when I could fly?

I turned around. The other two stared at me worriedly. Stretching out my wings, I beckoned up to Dib. "Come here, please."

"Why?" he asked, looking suspicious.

"I want to fly to the city. I'll carry you," I offered.

"Why?" he repeated, still standing in the same spot on the hilltop.

I frowned, wondering why the answer wasn't obvious to him. "We will get there faster if we fly than if we walk."

A faint smirk flashed across his mouth. "Why are you so expeditious all the time?"

"Because it's efficient," I answered at once, striding back up the hill toward him through the long grass, since he wasn't coming to me.

Dib looked down at the ground while I stopped in front of him, holding out my hands expectantly. Sighing softly, he tilted his head back to smile up at me. "That's always been the reason, hasn't it?" he asked quietly, finally stepping forward so I could pick him up. Not knowing what he was referring to, I hoped it was a rhetorical question, and didn't answer when I stood up and smoothly launched us both into the night air. Jiū followed us a moment later, and we flew side-by-side toward Moon City.

Glancing down at Dib in concern, I held onto him a bit tighter. His heart was pounding furiously, and I wondered what was wrong. It wasn't like I was going to drop him. Or was that why? Perhaps I'd dropped him by accident in the past. If I'd even carried him before in the first place. Knowing myself, I was sure that I had if it meant I would get to my destination sooner.

Jiū directed me toward the correct area of the moon-lit town, and I let Dib and I down in a small open area. Setting the boy on the ground, I cautiously looked around the silent, deserted area, feeling disoriented at the emptiness. "Where is everyone?"

"Probably at Star City." Though Dib's answer had been quietly spoken, his high voice sounded unnaturally loud in the silence that pressed in around us.

"Oh," I said with a slight frown. "And that's where the…? Um…"

"The Grand Melee is there, yes," Jiū supplied, taking my hand. She led me toward a large platform that was nearby, and halted me in the middle.

I looked downward at the prettily carved jade-colored pavement underfoot. "What's this thing?"

"It's for teleporting between cities," she explained while Dib stopped on my other side. My eyebrows drew together when I vaguely remembered the compression that came with teleporting. That horrible, suffocating feeling like getting sucked through a drinking straw.

"I don't like teleporting," I hastily announced, watching Jiū while she hurried toward a NPC standing beside the platform. I may have been a very expeditious person as Dib had observed, but I would have gladly traded teleportation for flying, or walking. Even crawling all the way to Star City sounded like a nicer option.

"You said that the last time, too," Dib commented, smirking up at me.

"It'll be over in a moment," assured Jiū when she walked back over to us after paying the fee for using the teleporter. She took my hand again and squeezed it. "Since the competition is tomorrow, we don't have nearly enough time to fly all the way to Star City, or I'd suggest that."

I reluctantly nodded at her words, but I still didn't want to do it. Before I could attempt to talk her out of it, I was abruptly squashed into blackness, and then thrown out in a different city. Breathing heavily, I clutched at my chest and ran my eyes over the bluish-black, star-studded sky where the giant moon had just been resting. I felt as though I'd been run over by something. At least it really had been quick. She could have warned me, though.

Stepping shakily off the jade platform, I let Jiū lead me along the road. As I wove through the crowded area, getting pressed from all sides, part of me felt as though I was still teleporting. I hoped most of the people were teams competing in the Grand Melee, so I would get to watch the fight while being able to breathe. Then again, that would mean Gui was at a bigger disadvantage.

Disadvantage…? My eyes widened in realization.

"Dib!" I suddenly exclaimed, letting go of Jiū's hand and turning around, feeling annoyed at my thoughtlessness. He looked up at me with a very dissatisfied expression while he got hit upside the head by some passing player's cloak, causing his curly hair to stand on end in disarray. "I'm sorry," I said, quickly picking him up and anxiously patting his hair back into order.

"It's fine," he grumbled when I turned back to Jiū and took her hand again. Inwardly kicking myself, I hoped he hadn't gotten too pushed around in the crowd before I'd noticed. Though he really could have just asked me to continue carrying him.

We walked for a few minutes, and Jiū pulled me into a dark little alleyway. "This should be close enough for now."

"Yeah," I agreed, setting Dib on the ground now that we were out of the flow of people. "I don't suppose Gui Wen would be online yet?" I asked a bit hopefully, though it wasn't even afternoon. But it was the weekend, so there was still a slight possibility.

"No," Jiū answered with a slight frown, "but I'm sure we'll be able to find him later. Shall we log off?"

Sighing with disappointment, I nodded, hoping the day would go by quickly.

"Wait a minute!" Dib grabbed my hand and tightly held on. "You're leaving?"

"Yes," I affirmed, staring down at him in confusion. "There's nothing to do until Gui Wen logs in, so I'll just log on again tonight."

His face flickered with hurt for a moment, but was then replaced with a hesitant look. "…May I come visit you in the mean time?"

"Visit?" I repeated. "In real life?" He nodded, and I glanced questioningly at Jiū. Even if I was living there, I still saw it as her family's house, not mine, and I wasn't about to invite people over without her consent. Once I thought about it, I realized I didn't even know the address.

She quirked a pale eyebrow at me, looking somewhat amused. "Of course. He may visit whenever he wants. He's your friend, after all."

I gave her some sort of a nod-shrug mix, and then paused for a moment, mentally asking myself why I was friends with a toddler. Earlier he'd mentioned my office. Was he the child of one of my employees? Why would I befriend someone like that?

Jiū told him the house address, and he then turned back to me, smiling widely. "See you in a bit, Al!" He then logged off.

Wondering if I'd be able to recognize him, I frowned at the spot where he'd just been standing. Well, he'd tell me who he was when he arrived. I hoped his parents wouldn't think it was weird, having their little boy go to some random person's home.

I didn't even have anything a child would think was entertaining, at least that I knew of. What were we going to do? Perhaps Jiū would be able to find something to occupy him with. And I'd seen a little girl in our house, maybe she could play with him. He didn't look to be much older, after all. Though the way he spoke was a bit odd for such a young child.

Exiting the game, I slowly opened my eyes and stared at the unfamiliar-looking ceiling for a moment. It was just a ceiling, but it looked so different from the one in my bedroom. When was I going to get used to waking up here, rather than at home? Everyone was doing their best to make me feel welcome and I really didn't dislike living there, but a part of me felt like I was out of place.

Jiao shifted beside me, pulling her headset off and stretching slightly. With a smile, she leaned over me, slipping my headset off for me and giving me a kiss. "Good morning!" she greeted.

"Good morning," I returned, grinning up at her and laughing slightly. I definitely didn't dislike living there.

Eyes flickering between hers for a moment, I let my gaze drop to her lips as she lowered them onto mine again. I deeply breathed in her scent as her soft hands caressed my face, and I sighed against her mouth, trying to imprint the moment into my brain so I wouldn't forget.

She'd been very cautious with me when I first came to live there, since I forgot her every few minutes, but now that I'd gotten a slightly firmer hold on things, she was quite a bit more intimate with me than before.

I found it a bit curious in these new, unfamiliar situations, how breathless I'd feel. Sometimes my mind go blank when she would look at me or touch me, and I knew it had nothing to do with my head injury.

It was odd. In the past, those things actually had happened quite often, always when my father was around. The blinding suffocation of his presence. But somehow this was exactly the same while being the complete opposite. I supposed it was like the difference between drowning and swimming underwater. Unlike my struggles to resurface when trying to deal with my father, whenever Jiao kissed me, I didn't really care that I couldn't breathe. In fact, I thought perhaps I enjoyed the feeling quite a bit. I certainly didn't want it to stop, whatever was going on with my lungs.

"Mm," Jiao hummed for a moment, and then gave me a hug, careful not to jostle my arm. "I should go study," she said with a reluctant frown.

"The curse of being a university student," I mused, smiling up at her annoyed expression.

She smirked slightly and gave me another quick kiss before climbing off the window seat we'd been laying on. "I'll have someone show Dib inside when he arrives," she said, helping me up into a sitting position. "Do you want more tea, or anything to eat?"

"No. Thank you, though," I answered. "I'm just going to unpack for a bit."

She stared at me briefly, a concerned look on her face, but she nodded. "Don't hold yourself back if you want something, okay? This is your home, too," she ended softly, running her hand down my cheek once more before smiling again and walking away.

I watched her leave, and then sighed, slowly standing up. I wasn't holding myself back. I honestly didn't want anything, but people always seemed not to believe me whenever I said so.

Grimacing briefly when my arm shifted in its sling, I walked over to the open boxes in the corner. Bending down, I plucked a black, long-sleeve shirt off the top of the pile in the box of winter clothes, and walked to the closet. With some difficulty, I managed to one-handedly put it on a hanger.

Going back to the box, I pulled out another shirt and hung it up as well. Wanting to drag out the process, since I didn't have anything better to do, I didn't bother pushing the box closer to the closet while I continued walking back and forth. With as long as it took me to hang everything up and sort them all by color and type, the box still emptied rather quickly.

Pushing that box out of the way, I reached into the next and opened the long, thin box containing my ties, hanging them up one-by-one on the pegs across my closet wall, once again taking as long as I could in arranging them by color and shade. I then lined up all of my shoes on the floor underneath my hanging clothes.

Using my feet, I slid the box containing the remainder of my odds and ends into the closet, and then shut the door. Quickly scooping up my laptop out of the one remaining box, I walked over to my desk and carefully set it down on top. Lifting the screen, I pressed the power button, and watched the screen flicker to life.

Ten minutes later, I had all the rest of the computer equipment scattered across the top of my desk—at least, everything I could easily pick up with one hand, since I didn't want to drop and break anything—and I leaned back in my office chair, sleepily staring up at the ceiling while I absently turned myself back and forth, listening to the soft music playing out of my computer speakers.

That soon got boring, so I stood up and walked to the window seat. Awkwardly moving the tea set Jiao had left there onto the floor, I flopped down onto the fluffy cushions and buried my face in a pillow. It smelled like Jiao. Smiling into the soft fabric, I stretched myself out and slowly fell asleep, feeling as though she was still there with me. It made me feel safe.

The sunshine beaming down on me was nice and warm. The soft breeze played across my face, making my hair tickle my skin slightly. I lifted a hand and scratched at my cheek for a moment before letting my eyes open. The blue sky hovering over me was breath-taking. Laying on my back in the flower-dotted grass, I felt as though I could fall forward into that blueness and just keep going forever. I wondered how far I could fly before the blue would swallow me up for good.

_"You came back."_

Slowly turning my head, I stared into the blue eyes of the boy laying in the crook of my arm. His eyes looked just like the sky. Blue and deep.

He gazed at me, looking hopeful. I ran his words over in my mind, wondering if they had been a question or a statement.

After a moment, I shook my head and looked upward again. _"No, I didn't."_

With a slight sigh, the boy lifted himself off my arm and bent over me, disbelievingly raising a golden eyebrow. _"You're here, aren't you?"_

_"I won't come back,"_ I answered, glancing away from him. _"I don't want to go back."_

He stared at me for what felt like days, when a tear slid down his face and landed on my cheek. I silently looked back at him, not moving to comfort him. After all, there was nothing I could do for him anymore.

He brushed the tear off my face, and dipped down to gently kiss me, tailing his fingers over my skin. But before I could tell him to stop, he did on his own, moving away from me and smiling. I watched somewhat apprehensively while he stood and walked away from me across the bright green grass. I sat up and blinked slowly, watching him fade out of sight.

_"Well, I suppose it's better this way. Huh, Al?"_

I suddenly felt as though I was falling forward. My eyes finally flew open, and I abruptly attempted to sit up. "I DON'T WANT TO FALL IN THE BLUE—OUCH!" I yelled, more out of surprise than pain when my forehead crashed into something very solid. Though it didn't hurt at first, a moment later my entire head began to ache as the discomfort stirred up the injury on the back of my skull where the stairs at home had clobbered me.

My eyes watered with pain as I one-handedly clutched at my poor, throbbing head. "Ow, damn it…!"

"I-I'm sorry! I wasn't expecting you to sit up like that… Are you okay?"

Cracking open one eye, I peeked at what I'd run into. Much to my bewilderment, one of my employees was sitting beside me on the edge of my window seat, holding his own forehead, a worried expression on his face. I glared at him in response to his question, since I didn't want to shake my head. Of course I wasn't okay after getting unexpectedly bonked. Why'd he been bending over me, instead of waking me up? And why was he here, anyway?

"I didn't mean to startle you," he hurriedly continued, and then a tiny laugh puffed through his lips. "What kind of dream were you having? 'Fall in the blue'…"

When he raised a hand to put it on my shoulder, I quickly slipped off the window seat and stepped across the room to a safe spot out of his reach. Turning around, I let go of my forehead and stared at him suspiciously. When he didn't move to stand up and chase after me or anything, I calmed down slightly.

"Shi Heng, why are you here?" I asked, then paused and looked questioningly down at the small blue tea set on the floor beside my window seat. Two tiny, rounded tea cups and a fat little tea pot were there on the wooden tray, yet my mouth was mysteriously full of the sweet, cinnamon-like taste of… donuts.

"Y-you remember me?" His eyes widened hopefully. "Jiao and the others warned me that you might not, but you do?"

"Yes, I remember you," I softly confirmed. "We work together."

With a small frown, he agreed, "Well, yes. That's… part of our relationship. A very small part. Not the part I would have preferred you kept, but I guess I'm just glad you remember me at all."

"Did my father send you?" I briefly glanced about his hands, wondering if he'd brought me a message.

"No, he didn't send me." Heng rubbed his reddening forehead again, a grimace of discomfort briefly flashing across his mouth. "I just, um, wanted to see you. I don't think he knows I'm here. I sure as hell didn't tell him that I was coming to visit."

I was filled with a mixture of disappointment and relief, disappointment far outweighing the other, and dropped my eyes to the floor, managing a small nod. Even if it had been for some work-related purpose, I would have been happy to hear anything from my father. It had been two weeks already, why hadn't he come to see me? He hadn't even sent me any messages, that I knew of. It was like he'd forgotten all about me.

Sighing, I looked back to Heng. "What business do you have with me if my father has not sent you? Has something urgent happened at the office you wished to speak to me about? My father must have temporarily replaced me with someone while I am not able to go to work. Whoever that may be should be capable of answering your queries."

"Um, well, I didn't come here about work. As I said, I just wanted to see you, because I was worried about you." He smiled faintly at me. "Also, I-I asked you earlier today if I could visit you, and you agreed. Remember? I'm Dib."

"Oh," I murmured. So he and I had spoken, and just today, too. But when was it? I'd been unpacking all morning. And sleeping.

"I am sorry, but I do not remember."

The smile faded from Heng's face while I spoke. "He really didn't hold back this time, did he?" he questioned icily, an angry expression replacing the one of worry as he ran his eyes over my broken arm.

When I didn't answer, Heng's face twisted in pain and he leaned over, resting his head on one hand. "Al," he said, his voice cracking slightly. "I'm so sorry… I'm sorry. I'm so stupid."

"Why are you apologizing?" I asked, feeling extremely confused.

"Because!" he yelled. "This is all my fault! If I hadn't moronically asked you to stay the night at my house, none of this would have happened! You told me ages ago that he warned you to stay away from me, but I just… told myself it'd be okay… And if I'd just kept my big mouth shut in the first place, you wouldn't have even come to find me. I'm so sorry, Al…"

I stayed silent and uncomfortably shifted from one foot to the other while he repeated his apology over and over. He looked so despairing, I didn't know what to say to try to calm him down. Why was he acting so friendly with me, anyway?

Glancing at him awkwardly when he finally looked up, I shrugged. "W-well, I will heal in a month or so, and then I will go back home. Whatever has happened, it is fine."

Heng abruptly stood and shook his head, a look of utter disbelief on his face. "No way! Why in the world would you even consider for a second going back to that hell hole? He'll just hurt you again!"

My eyes widened with perplexity at his violent response. How did he know about that stuff? I'd never told anyone about anything that went on at home.

"That does not matter to me. It is still my home, regardless," I told him, trying to sound firm through all of my confusion and wishes that he'd go away.

"It matters to me," he snapped, walking forward, "and it matters to Jiao, and to Gui, and to everyone else! Why are you so care-free when it comes to him beating you to a pulp all of the time? Why don't you ever fight back? Just because he's your father doesn't mean he can do whatever the hell he wants."

I shook my head when he stopped in front of me, placing both hands on my shoulders. "I am grateful for your concern, but you do not have to worry. It is fine."

"Stop talking to me like that, damn it!" he angrily commanded, shaking me slightly. I drew back from him in fear, and he took a deep breath, looking somewhat calmer afterward. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean… It's just that, well, you're here, and yet you're not here, it's… aggravating."

He paused to take another steadying breath, faintly smiling at me. "I know you don't remember, but I'm your best friend. Well, _secret_ best friend, since your father doesn't want me to have anything to do with you, seeing as how I'm your lowly employee and all that crap he thinks is so important. But you don't have to be so guarded, okay?" Raising one hand, he gently placed it on the side of my face and stepped closer to me. "I already know everything that's happened, so please… don't hide things from me, Al…"

Staring up at Heng, I silently contemplated everything he'd said thus far. We were best friends, and I'd stayed over at his house for some reason… With that in place, everything that had happened was quite a bit clearer. My father would never want me to get close to my employees. Though his reaction still seemed a bit over the top.

Dropping my eyes, I looked past Heng to gaze at the wall instead, quietly answering at last, "He'd only get angrier if I tried to stop him. And besides, it's because of my own mistakes that this happened. It's not the fault of anyone else but myself."

Heng suddenly glared at me, and I winced when his hand gripped my shoulder tighter. "What am I supposed to say to you when you constantly tear yourself down like that? It was _not_ your fault. Just because your father said it was doesn't mean you have to believe him."

The corner of my mouth twitched with a humorless smile. "What else can I do when that's all he'll ever say to me?"

Heng froze at my words and I detached his hand from my shoulder while his eyes darted about the floor. I left him there and went to sit in my office chair, feeling very tired. I wanted him to leave already yet so I could go back to bed. My daily medication made me so sleepy, and that little nap I'd just had wasn't nearly enough to wake me up.

Curiously glancing toward Heng, I watched while he sat himself down on the corner of my bed, leaning forward to bury his face in his hands again. Someone getting so upset over what was going on was, in a way, even more confusing to me than forgetting things all of the time. After so many years of being forced onto a pedestal by those whom I thought were my friends, it was strange to see Heng so genuinely concerned.

"Why do you keep calling me 'Al'?" I asked after a long, silent moment of watching him.

He faintly laughed at my question. "It's an abbreviated version of your name in Second Life. When we first started playing the game together, I asked if you would mind if I gave you a nickname, and you said you didn't care. So I always call you that whenever we're in-game or alone," he explained fondly. He slowly straightened, looking at me again while he leaned back on my bed, propping himself up on his hands. "Does it bother you? I'll stop if you don't like it."

"No, I don't mind if you call me that." I quickly shook my head and relaxed into my chair slightly. "It's just that no one has ever given me a nickname before, so I didn't know what you meant by it," I quietly admitted, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

We stared at one another, silence falling through the room again, aside from the continued music playing out of my laptop behind me. After several minutes had passed, Heng shrugged one shoulder, shaking his head. "What I meant? Well, it's just a friendly little nickname." Smiling after a moment, he then added, "On the surface, anyway."

I continued to look at him, wondering what he meant by that. He sure was hard to understand.

Before I could ask him to clarify what he'd said, a loud knocking on my bedroom door made us both jump. The door suddenly burst open, regardless of how I hadn't given entrance to whoever it was, and a man strode inside, carrying a wide, food-covered wooden tray.

"Hey, Dib, Zian," he greeted, walking toward me. He carefully slid the tray on the top of my desk and looked down at me, raising an eyebrow. I stared back in silence, wondering what he wanted.

Nearly a minute crawled by and he finally sighed in exasperation. "Did you forget me again?"

"Um, yes." I looked at him apologetically.

"I just introduced myself to you for the millionth time this morning over breakfast!" he snapped, slapping a hand on the corner of my desk in a very annoyed way as if I'd forgotten on purpose. "I'm your brother!"

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. "You are not," I disagreed, frowning at him. I may have lost bits of my memory, but he was clearly not Gui Wen.

He rolled his eyes. "Brother-_in_-_law, _Delun."

"Oh," I murmured, nodding. He could have said that in the first place, I thought with a huff. Was he just trying to confuse me? Not that it took much to do so, but really.

"Anyway." He cleared his throat, straightening up and turning to Heng. "Dib, maybe you can get him to eat something." Delun waved a hand at the food. "I don't think he's eaten since yesterday afternoon. Jiao-mèi'll yell at me if I don't try to persuade him, but he keeps refusing whenever I ask. Maybe you'll have an easier time."

I stared down at the food for a moment, eyes snagging on a small cinnamon donut sitting on a napkin, and remembered that sweet taste, which was still lingering in my mouth. We really did have some, yet I couldn't recall eating one.

Delun pushed the donut closer to me. "Want it? You've been staring at it for a while now."

I pushed it back at him in rejection. "No, I was just… Did I already have a donut this morning?"

He shook his head, then gestured toward Heng. "Dib brought them. According to Jiao-mèi, you haven't eaten anything today. So, no, you haven't had a donut. Why?"

"Never mind," I quietly ended, then slid the whole tray in his direction. "Thank you, but I'm not hungry."

"You're like a twig." With a glare, he firmly grabbed my right wrist, rolled my sweater sleeve away, and held up my arm like he was using it as evidence, waving it in front of my face. "It doesn't matter if you're not hungry, your stomach is still empty."

"I had some tea earlier," I explained, taking my arm back from his clutches. I pointed at the tell-tale tea set sitting by the window. "See?"

Delun rolled his eyes a second time, then pushed the food tray at me again. "As if you could survive off of tea. Eat, or else I'll cram it all down your scrawny little throat."

I was somewhat taken aback at his unexpected threat. He looked like he'd do it. And very willingly, at that.

But, much to my relief, Heng came to my rescue, standing up and striding toward us before Delun had a chance to "feed" me. "It's okay, I'll get him to eat."

With a nod, Delun sighed and turned away, waving a hand. "Good luck. Be sure he eats a lot. All of it, if possible. It'd be bad if my little sister's ridiculous fiancée wastes away because of his own stupidity."

I watched in annoyance as he left, and glanced down again at the food before looking back up at Heng. "I'm not hungry," I firmly repeated.

Heng ignored my refusal and grabbed a pear off the tray. Frowning, I silently watched him cut it up for me. He picked up one of the slices and began poking my defiantly closed mouth with it, smiling widely. "Say 'ahhh'!"

I glared at him and snatched the pear away. "Give me that."

He laughed as I bit into it, scowling in at getting forced to eat. He went back to cutting up the rest, shaking his head slightly. "Geeze, Al… So mean."

Half an hour later, Heng was leaning against the side of my bed and turning his head this way and that, inspecting the interior of my bedroom while he slowly chewed on the pear slice sticking out of his mouth. The pear slice I was technically supposed to be eating, along with all of the other food Heng had nicely cleared off my tray for me when I adamantly refused to eat anything else after a whole pear. Though he had left me another pear half, ordering me to eat it even if I was full.

"It's a nice room," he remarked around the fruit, "but kind of bare. A bed, a desk, a dresser, and that's it." His eyebrows lowered in a confused sort of way when he glanced in my direction. I had nothing to add to his words. So what if it was bare? It wasn't like I needed anything else.

"Where's all the fun stuff?" he inquired after I didn't reply. His head turned in the direction of my closet door and he smiled, standing up and stuffing the remainder of the pear into his mouth and quickly chewing while he walked toward the closet and threw open the door. A moment went by while he looked over the small space, then he looked down. "A-ha! I found a box of goodies."

My eyes widened when he disappeared from view, and the sounds of him rummaging around started crashing through the room. "W-wait, Heng. Please–"

His head popped into sight for a split second so he could command, "Call me Dib!" before he promptly vanished again.

Frowning, I hurried over to the closet and fretfully looked down at him while he picked through my box. "Well then, Dib. Please, stop going through my things." He gave my request a thoroughly disappointed stare when I snatched my camera out of his hands. "You and I may be friends, but I can't remember anything about it, so stop digging around in my closet. You're invading my privacy."

Heng let out a long sigh, but nodded. However, he then scooped up my old sketch book out of the box and ran from the closet, chuckling mischievously. "Give that back!" I snapped, carefully putting my camera back into the cardboard box before hurrying after Heng. He jumped onto the top of my bed, bounced across it, then hopped to the floor on the other side, flipping open the book as he went.

"Don't look!" I yelled in annoyance, running around the edge of the bed. Heng simply scrambled over the top of my bed again, laughing the whole way and leaving my blankets in a rumpled mess.

"I didn't know you liked to draw." Heng eagerly flipped through my sketches. He paused on one of the pages. "O-o-o-oh, you even wrote little diary thingies! '_Saturday; I have a piano lesson today. I have always hated playing the piano, it is so bothersome and tedious._'"

My mouth dropped open in horror and I quickly resumed my pursuit, face burning with embarrassment. I didn't care that he now knew that I didn't like to play the piano, but what if he read some of the more personal things I'd written? That idiot, why was he so annoying? I knew he was rather audacious, but what he was doing now was on an entirely different level than how he behaved at the office.

Shakily sliding to a halt, my stocking feet slipping over the smooth floor, I grabbed at his hand, which he was holding aloft over his head. "GIVE THAT BACK! DON'T READ IT!"

Heng frowned down at me, lifting the sketch book out of my reach when I took a swing at it. "Geeze, have you _always_ been so aloof? Even writing this, you–"

"GIVE IT BACK TO ME RIGHT NOW!" I glared at Heng with all of the anger I could muster in my sleepy, foggy-minded state.

Rather than obeying, he stared at me for a moment as if he was surprised, and then suddenly burst into laughter again, holding the book even higher when I weakly attempted to snatch it from him. "I don't wanna give it back! I WANNA LOOK AT IT SOME MORE!" he loudly declared, swatting away my hand and running from me again.

"I DON'T WANT YOU TO LOOK!" I screamed, chasing after him.

"TOO BAD, 'CAUSE I ALREADY DID! HA-_HA_! WHAT'RE YOU GONNA DO NOW, AL?"

"SHUT UP, AND GIVE ME THE BOOK!" I grabbed his arm, twisting him around. He lost his balance, tripped and fell on top of my bed, yanking me down with him. I landed beside him and finally managed to grab a corner of the thin book. Tugging it toward myself and ignoring the stabbing pain in my left arm, I gave another glare to the still-laughing Heng. Instead of letting me have the book, he effortlessly pulled it out of my grasp and threw it onto the opposite side of the bed, where it fell off the edge and landed on the wooden floor with a soft thud.

"WHY ARE YOU SO IMPOSSIBLE?" I yelled, punching Heng's shoulder.

"YOU'RE THE IMPOSSIBLE ONE, YOU JERK! I JUST WANTED TO LOOK AT IT!" He grabbed me around the middle and pulled me back onto the blankets when I attempted to slip off the bed to retrieve the book.

"Let go!" I ordered furiously, trying and failing to pry his hands off my waist. I had to hide the book somewhere so he wouldn't read it.

"I'm not letting go until you agree to let me see what's in the book!"

"No!"

Heng pulled me backward again and pouted up at me. "Please? C'mon, Al! Let me see!"

"I said I don't…" Pausing, I squeezed my eyes shut, attempting to blink away the little floaty dots swarming in front of my eyes. The light-headedness had caught up to me, making my vision swim. I could feel the beginnings of a new headache coming as well.

"Are you okay?" Heng hastily asked, all of the playfulness gone from his voice when I swayed to one side, catching myself with my right arm. He sat up and took hold of my shoulders, gently laying me down in his place. "What's wrong, Al?"

I cracked my eyes open and frowned up at him. Closing my eyes again, I rubbed my face with my hand. "I got dizzy is all, it's nothing serious. It happens all the time."

"Are you sure you're okay?" he frantically pressed. "Should I go get someone? Do you need anything? Are you in pain? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so rough with you! I got carried away!"

"The medicine I have to take every morning makes me drowsy," I slowly explained, attempting to regulate my breathing after spontaneously running around so much. "You woke me up earlier, and I'm still tired."

"You should have told me to visit some other time if I was interrupting your nap," he grumbled, flopping himself down beside me. He pushed the rumpled blankets around for a moment, getting himself comfortable. "I would have left if you'd asked, you know."

"That would have been rude," I murmured, "turning you away just because I was sleepy, after you troubled yourself and came all this way."

Heng laughed for a moment. "It's not like I had to travel for days to get here. It took ten minutes by car, if even that."

"Still," I continued, sighing slightly, "at least you did. My father's house is about that far away, yet Jiao told me he hasn't come to see me even once. I know I'd simply forget about it after a while, but it'd be nice if he would, anyway."

"Isn't it a good thing that he hasn't come?" Heng asked quietly. "He'd probably only upset you if he did. Or do something to make your condition even worse than it is already."

"Perhaps, but I still miss him," I admitted slowly, squeezing my eyes shut even tighter. "Now that I'm not there, he's all alone in that house. I mean, I doubt he's lonely or anything without me there—he's probably happier now that I'm gone, really—but I still don't like the thought of leaving him alone."

Heng rolled himself closer to me, lightly rubbing a hand on my shoulder. "Because Gui left him already?"

In surprise, I opened my eyes and turned my head to look at Heng. "You certainly know a lot."

"You said a lot," Heng added, smiling at me over a fold in the fluffy blankets.

I silently stared at him for a long minute. "We must be very close if I said things like that… You're the only person I've told," I mused sleepily. "I wish I could remember."

"So do I," he softly agreed. My eyes closed again nearly by themselves while he wordlessly fiddled with the blanket, and I fought to stay awake. Though in my memory Heng was still just one of my employees, I felt very comfortable in his presence. Until just now, I hadn't even noticed how ridiculous my behavior was earlier. I never would have acted like that around him or anyone else in the past.

"Al, did you fall asleep?" he whispered, gently prodding my shoulder with one finger.

"No," I muttered, groggily cracking my eyes open again.

"Oh. Well, you can if you want," he offered with a chuckle, slowly lifting his hand and brushing my hair off my forehead. His cold hand felt nice against my skin, warmed from running around.

"Are you looking for another opening to peek into my sketch book?" I questioned half-jokingly.

He laughed deeply. "No, I'm not. I promise I won't look if you're that against it. I'll put the book back in your closet, no peeks, before I leave." After giving my forehead another gentle pat, he took his hand back. "Go ahead and sleep. You need it."

Worry slipped over my face, making me frown. "I might not remember you when I wake up."

Heng's own face darkened at my words, but he nodded. "Maybe not. But," he added, looking a bit cheerier, "I'll come visit you as often as I can and I'll keep reminding you about us. I'll tell you so often that you can't possibly forget me ever again."

Smiling, I closed my eyes once more and laughed. "That sounds nice. Though you're a very annoying person, I'm happy you came to see me. It means a lot." I shifted myself into a comfortable position, giving Heng one last glance. "Goodbye, Dib."

"See you later, Al," he choked out, fighting to keep a smile on his face. Sighing, I tried to ignore the loneliness welling up and slowly went to sleep, listening to his unsteady breathing beside me.


	26. Suppressed Anger

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note –**__ The other day, I came across a children's picture book I'd never heard of before called _Hey, Al_. It was about a janitor named Al, who, with his dog named Eddie, flew on a giant bird to a tropical island because he wanted a more invigorating life. But their new lives on the island turned out to be just as troublesome as the old._

_In my story, there's no dog named Eddie, and Al isn't a janitor, but… xD_

_I was extremely amused._

* * *

I stared hard into the face of the armor-clad man standing in front of me, determined to remember who he was. Not that he would tell me, as he sharply informed me moments ago. But I supposed it would be better to try for myself to remember things, rather than having people simply tell me all of the time. Everyone else seemed more interesting in looking between he and I, rather than saying anything, anyway. So on I stared.

That scowl on his face, the shape of his features, the way his gloved hands looked like they were itching to strangle me…

My eyes widened a bit as something clicked in my mind. "You're the man who threatened to kill me earlier."

All three women standing beside me who'd been watching in silence abruptly turned to the man and began glaring at him. He initially looked a bit overwhelmed at the onslaught of female fury, but quickly composed himself.

"WEI BO-DÀGĒ, WHAT DID–" Avila began, looking extremely angry and placing one of her small hands on the hilt of her nan dao.

"I did _not_ do that! He's making things up!" he accused, thrusting his finger at me.

"How rude! I am not!" I snapped in return, pushing his hand away from my face. "You said you'd forcefully shove things down my throat!" I grabbed Dib by the shoulders and held him up in front of myself for back up. "He heard you, too!"

"Psh, how rude? That was because you refused to eat again!" he countered indignantly as I set Dib on the ground.

"So you did threaten him!" Jiū growled. Her white wings warningly stretched themselves out. "I asked you to take him food, not scare him! He's got amnesia, how could you?"

Wei Bo pleadingly looked at her. "He's making it sound like I was waving a knife around! All I did was tell Twig here to eat and I had to get a bit stern, since he refused, just like the five hundred other times I've tried to convince him! What was I supposed to do? Let him go hungry again, like he's so determined to do?"

Dib started shaking with laughter at my new nickname, and smirked at the frantic warrior. "Well, you could have been gentler with him. You were kind of startling, you know."

"You're in no position to say that, you… you person with a Peter Pan complex!"

The boy's laughter was abruptly cut off by a strangled, angry noise. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Why are you so tiny?" Wei Bo demanded as he looked Dib up and down.

"T-that doesn't have anything to do with anything!" Dib yelled, red in the face with embarrassment while he glowered up at the much taller man. With as huge as he apparently was in real life, I couldn't help but also wonder why he'd decided to be so small. It seemed rather inconvenient.

"Okay, everyone calm down," Xiu Chen reprimanded, putting a firm hand on Wei Bo's armored shoulder. He crossed his arms with a huff, but fell obediently silent. "We were trying to help him remember things while we wait for the Odd Squad, not start fights. Now then, Aeolus-gē?"

I gladly took my eyes away from Wei Bo's irritated frown and looked at his wife instead. Then again, she had a similar expression gracing her round face. "Yes?"

"You said you weren't hungry at dinner, does that mean you ate a big lunch?" she pressed, staring at me suspiciously.

"Yes. Dib force-fed me a whole pear," I confirmed with a nod. "And half of another," I quickly added after she raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

Xiu Chen heaved a sigh and shook her head, shoulders sagging tiredly under her green robes. "A _pear_? Hamsters eat more in one sitting than you do in an entire day! You're going to starve to death, you reverse goldfish!"

"Why are you comparing me to house pets?" I asked, feeling annoyed and not caring in the slightest about the eating habits of rodents and fish, since I didn't own either one, and wasn't.

"At least Toothpick costs less to house than a pet," Wei Bo muttered under his breath, resulting in Xiu Chen clobbering him with her very thick priest's healing book.

"You really should eat more, you know!" a smooth voice suddenly called from behind me and a hand dropped onto my shoulder. Refraining from jumping in surprise, I glanced behind myself and came face to face with some elf. "Hey! Long time no see," he greeted, smiling widely.

"H-hello, Prince!" Avila sputtered at him, suddenly looking very flustered. He gave her a twitchy half-grin in return, which looked more like a pained grimace brought on by gas in my opinion.

"Aeolus!" a little girl suddenly called, running toward me and hugging me around the middle. I nearly crashed into Dib when I stumbled to one side. "It's been too long, my servant!"

"Erm, yes, I suppose it has," I muttered, wishing she would let me go. What'd she mean, servant?

Before I could wonder about her strange words anymore, my eyes suddenly became glued to the top of the girl's head where a round, white thing was sitting. I'd seen that before. That loud, obnoxious pet who wouldn't shut up, and cried all over the top of my head…

"Meatbun!" I exclaimed. At my call, the bun gave me an extremely terrified look and immediately leapt toward the safety of his owner's arms, burying his face in Prince's chest.

My team fell silent at my remembrance, and blankly stared at me. Dib suddenly began punching my leg. "Al, you jerk! How come you recognize a _bun _straight away, but you couldn't remember _me_, in-game or in real life?"

Pushing that girl back toward her team so she wouldn't get hurt, I stood still—or at least as still as one can stand while getting their leg beaten up—while Dib's fists pounded against my thigh. "I can't control what I forget or remember," I sighed, frowning down at the top of his curly head while he continued to pummel me. He didn't seem to notice I'd said anything.

"It's not like talking meat buns crop up every day, you know! It's kind of a memorable thing!"

"NEITHER DO BEST FRIENDS HAPPEN EVERY DAY, YOU JERK!" Dib bellowed at my excuse, punching even harder. I could feel my health steadily drain, and I quickly attempted to think up something to say that could calm him down. Nothing especially mellow came to mind, since I was too busy trying to block out the steadily growing pain in my leg while he yelled random threats. I wasn't sure if I should even try to calm him down. After all, he had every right to be angry at me, I supposed. It was also somewhat surprising to me that I'd remembered a bun rather than my best friend.

Then again, I'd also forgotten Jiū, and she wasn't trying to murder me.

Then again, she wasn't Dib.

"I don't particularly want to die from you punching my leg. Please, stop." Shooting a pleading look at the rest of my team, I stepped away from the tiny boy's angry flailing, but he refused to give up so easily. The others looked like they didn't quite know what to do about Dib's abrupt outburst. Wei Bo actually seemed rather amused.

"Stop me yourself, you overgrown chicken!" yelled Dib as he began to yank back and forth on my belt in an attempt to tear it off my waist, one booted foot braced firmly against my knee, the other still kicking at my leg.

"You could at least come up with better insults," I proffered in annoyance while I tried to pry his little fingers off for fear of the leather stretching, though it was very thick. Only in Second Life would such a small person be able to do such things. Dib was like an ant, or something.

Dib gasped at my suggestion and gave me an extremely offended look as if he'd thought what he'd been saying should have brought me to tears in a moment. Giving my shin one last kick, he turned away with crossed arms and upturned nose. When I inhaled to ask him if he was okay, though I supposed it was my leg which should have been getting the sympathy, he gave me a brief, fuming look. "Don't talk to me, I'm mad at you!" he snapped, and then looked away again.

That was obvious. But I refrained from telling him so in an effort to keep him from getting angrier, and instead gave Jiū a helpless glance. She shrugged in reply, looking like she was attempting to keep herself from smiling. Big help my team was.

A cough from behind startled me slightly. I turned to send an apologetic look to the other team, which I'd forgotten for a moment was there, all of who were sending me many a bewildered stare.

"Sorry," I mumbled at them, backing up a few steps to stand beside Jiū. **"What are their names?"** I hurriedly asked over the team channel. **"Gui and Meatbun aside."**

**"Remember them yourself, Noodle," **Wei Bo huffed, earning himself a punch-to-the-arm from Avila. "OW! STOP HITTING ME!"

"Noodle?" I wondered aloud, giving him an irritated frown over my shoulder. Dib let out a reluctant chuckle, but quickly stifled it, cleared his throat, and looked stern again. "Stop calling me weird names!"

**"From the right to the left; their names are Prince, Lolidragon, Ugly Wolf, Yu Lian, and Doll,"** Jiū answered over Wei Bo and Avila's heated argument.

**"I'll try to remember,"** I said determinedly, staring at each of them in turn to attempt to stick their faces in my head.

They looked more confused than before at our conversation. "Is everything okay?" Ugly Wolf inquired hesitantly, giving concerned glances to the fist fight that suddenly broke out behind me, and the Very Angry Dib, who seemed to only be pretending at that point, standing to one side. Why were all the warriors in my team so violent and short-tempered? We were out in public, for goodness sake. They could have at least acted like they had a shred of shame until we got somewhere where they could rave at one another all they wanted without disturbing the other players.

"And I thought our team had a lot of discord," Lolidragon mused, smirking at the fight.

"It does," Yu Lian grumbled almost inaudibly under her breath, and then sighed slightly. "Well, how are you all doing? It's been quite a while since we've seen you last."

**"How long does she mean by 'quite a while'?"** I asked, glancing at Jiū.

**"We haven't seen them in three weeks, or so,"** she answered.

**"Are we really going to keep Str**—**Aeolus' injury from them? Gui would probably want to know,"** Wei Bo added, glancing cautiously at the women in case they'd noticed his little slip up.

I shot him an annoyed look, wondering what it was he'd been about to call me that time. At least he'd refrained from saying whatever it was, if only because he didn't want to get punched yet again.

**"I don't want to distract them from tomorrow's competition,"** I explained. If Gui would even care about what had happened. He'd been silently standing at the back of his group the whole time, avoiding any looks in my direction. That affirmed my suspicions that we had indeed fought whenever it was we'd met again. With as much as I wanted to speak to him, I was determined to step cautiously until he seemed ready to talk.

"We're all great!" Avila answered Yu Lian at last, roughly shoving Wei Bo out of the way to stand closer to the Odd Squad. Brutish behavior or not, I was starting to feel slightly bad for the poor man, getting pushed about by his wife and sisters, especially since it was my fault they were being so snippety with him. But Xiu Chen gave him a hug a moment later, and he seemed to cheer up.

"Was it necessary to have a team conference to decide that?" Lolidragon wondered, a pink eyebrow raised questioningly at all of the private messaging we'd been doing since they'd arrived.

"Speaking of teams, have you guys registered as an official team?" Prince asked.

"We haven't had a chance yet, no," Jiū answered, shaking her head slightly. "We've all been rather busy outside of the game the past couple weeks. Oh, and Gui-gēge?"

Gui started and looked at her in bewilderment at the title. "W-what…?"

"May I have your home address?" Jiū asked, smiling widely. Even with as sweetly and politely as she'd said it, I was sure he was going to refuse, regardless.

His purple eyes narrowed in suspicion and darted between Jiū and I several times before he took a deep breath and replied in an extremely reluctant tone, "Why?"

"Aeolus and I are going to start planning our wedding soon, we need your address for sending you an invitation to the ceremony, if you would be so kind as to attend. Unless you would simply prefer a verbal one?" She expectantly grinned at his frozen expression.

Several mouths dropped open a moment later. "YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED?" a chorus of voices exploded at me, nearly causing me to scream in surprise at their intensity. Why were they so damn loud all of the time? At least they weren't using the moment for an excuse to slap my back, or anything…

"Congratulations!"

"I want to come to the wedding, too!"

"Who's going to carry me if you get married?"

"Have you told Dark Phantom yet?"

"When's it gonna be?"

So much for not distracting them from the competition.

"Sorry, but I don't want to give my address to you," Gui answered, cutting into his teammates' excited chatter even though his voice was rather quiet. He crossed his arms and frowned at me. "I don't trust Big Mouth over there to keep such information from our _dear_ father."

The warm, happy atmosphere, which had been floating about from Jiū and my happy news, was abruptly incinerated into nothing by Gui's heated remark.

I stared at him for a moment, holding my breath in the strained silence that reigned over the two teams. It wasn't as though I'd been expecting him to give us congratulatory smiles and be excited like the others were, but there was little I could do to prepare myself for hearing the reason of his abrupt decline. He could have at least put it in a nicer manner.

Before I could react, both Dib and Prince were punching Gui. As he fell to the ground, I watched in horror while Dib pounded his fists on every inch of Gui he could reach with a great deal more fury than he'd been hitting my leg with. Running forward, I grabbed Dib around the middle and lifted him off Gui, who was venomously looking up at me, blood pouring down his cheek from a cut made by Dib's tiny, mail-covered fists.

Dib struggled hard in my grip, desperately trying to get back to his beating session. "APOLOGIZE TO AL! APOLOGIZE RIGHT NOW!" he screamed, yanking on my arms to get himself free. It was all I could do to hold onto him.

"Dib, calm down," I said, holding him against me as tightly as I could while taking several steps backward to give Gui room to stand up again. "Please–"

"I WON'T!" he refused, glaring up at me and giving me a punch as well before turning to look back at Gui with a murderous stare. "Do you even have any idea what Al's been going through after you left home? Don't you dare talk to him as if everything that happened is his fault, you moron! You left him all alone in that house for eleven years with that abusive bastard! You have… You have no i-idea!" Dib finally stopped yelling, turned to wrap his arms around my neck, and abruptly burst into tears. I ran one hand over the back of his head, attempting to sooth him.

Gui looked like he'd been punched several more times with Dib's words. His eyes widened in shock and he finally looked at me properly. "Z-Zian, what–"

"Excuse us, but I think we have to go now," Jiū slowly brushed aside his call. Surprise washed over me anew when I listened to her uncharacteristically icy tone, one I'd never heard her speak in before. Glancing down, I breathlessly stared at her furious expression while she turned away from my brother and his team, gently leading me away by the arm.


	27. The End of Waiting

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note –** This chapter kind of annoyed me to write, 'cause it's so similar to the original story. That's what endlessly bothers me with some of the fics (from the 1/2 Prince section or not) I've read; I get driven away with how much like the original story they are. I allow myself some similarities, or course, but I also try very hard to bring original material into my stories. After all, there's no point in writing if the story isn't my own and can be easily replaced with another. _

_Don't get me wrong, it's not that I think certain stories I've read are worthless or the author didn't put effort into writing them, I just think the author could have done more._

_But that's just my opinion… Make things your own! Use your imagination! That's what it's there for! If you don't think something is good enough, it probably isn't. I often go back and re-write things several times over to allow myself a modicum of satisfaction. But it isn't at all odd for new artists of any art form, writing included, to borrow from various sources until they form their own personal style. (Like mine! My [sometimes overwhelmingly] wordy writing is heavily influenced by incomparably awesome novel writers I grew up on, such as JRR Tolkien and Robin Hobb. xD)_

_It takes a lot of effort, but it's certainly worth it to have a new, fresh story that everyone will love to read, including the writer._

_Rambling time over~! :D_

* * *

_"Oh! He makes me so angry!" Jiū snapped, looking like an entirely different person than usual while she stomped through the long grass, pacing back and forth. "Carelessly saying such things…"_

_"Why'd you stop me?" Dib snarled, glaring at me. "He deserved–"_

_"Would you two just calm down already yet?" I pleaded, sighing and leaning away from Dib's annoyed expression. They'd been like this for the entire night, and it was getting extremely aggravating._

_"Stop telling me to calm down!"_

_"I don't get why you aren't mad, too," Wei Bo commented quietly, giving me a slightly confused glance. "If it was me…"_

Why wasn't I angry? That seemed to be the question everyone wanted to have me answer. I only had a question in return; why would I be angry? I was hurt by his rejection, yes. Disappointed that he was still mad at me, of course. But not particularly angry.

This wasn't the first time I'd wondered about such a thing myself all through the years that my brother had been missing. Even with what I'd done to him, I supposed that anyone else would have been resentful toward Gui for leaving and never being heard from again. Angry to the point of beating him up, as Dib had done in my place.

However, I had no such desire to see Gui get some sort of punishment for leaving me behind after what I did. He would have left home, even if I hadn't told my father that Gui wanted to leave. Why would Gui have stayed with me if he already had such plans in place? Plus he still wouldn't have contacted me all those years even if I'd kept my silence; it was crucial that he kept his whereabouts hidden. Only the atmosphere of his disappearance would have been different if I'd not said anything.

I supposed I'd felt twinges of anger in the past for his desertion, since that was only natural. But more than being angry that he'd left, I was more long the lines of lonely, because he didn't take me as well. Being young teenagers at that time, I could hardly hold that against him. He probably had a difficult enough time as it was by himself, I would have only been a hindrance. Everything was always a matter of putting things into perspective.

Nothing would change for the better by getting mad at him, aside from making him more unwilling to talk to me now that I'd found him. There was no point in allowing myself to get riled up with his malicious comments. It was in the past, thus I didn't dwell on it anymore. I'd never seen any worth in looking backward to things that had happened and hanging onto them. That would only drag me down even further than I was already being dragged. What mattered was what I could do at the moment, not what could have been if something had happened differently. Others may have seen my viewpoint as being apathetic and submissive, and perhaps it was, but I just didn't want to cause unnecessary conflict when there was a chance we could be civil to one another. Fear aside, that was a large part of why I was always so silent and still whenever my father raged at me. If I dared retaliate, he would only get angrier and more violent. Allowing him to vent made things simpler for us both.

Though, pushing me down the stairs was going a bit far.

But, all of that aside, more important to me at that moment was attempting to keep myself in one spot while I was getting shoved around in my seat. My fears seemed to have come true that many of the people who had been milling about Star City were the audience for the Grand Melee, and not competitors.

As such, I still wasn't sure if I was relieved for Gui and his teammates, or annoyed that my personal space was getting thoughtlessly invaded by excitedly screaming strangers. Why were they even screaming? Nothing scream-worthy was happening yet, unless someone accidentally got trodden on in all the chaos or something of that sort.

If they were really so determined to scream about whatever it was they were screaming about, couldn't they save it for the fight, whenever it was going to start? With as many spectators as were attending the event, many of them were still being seated, and my team and I had been sitting there for nearly an hour.

Anyway, who would want to scream with excitement over watching people murder one another? It was like we'd reverted back to the Roman Empire and their gladiator games.

It wasn't until quite a while later that, at last, team after team started filing into the stadium, filling the circular area in the middle of the enormous arena. With each new team that entered, I felt my stomach drop. Gui was going to get slaughtered… That idiot. Who in their right mind would willingly enter into such a horrible competition? Playing Second Life had made him so brainless.

"There they are!" Avila called over the noise of the crowd, standing on her tip-toes to see the entrance of the arena. Quickly getting to my feet—with some difficulty, since I was still being jostled this way and that—I watched the Odd Squad step inside. They stood by themselves, away from the teams massing in groups in the middle of the stadium.

The words blaring through the air from the hyperactive announcer barely registered in my mind while I intently stared at the tiny purple figure in the distance which was Gui. I didn't especially want to see any of these people get killed, but least of all Gui. I hoped he would be okay.

"I hope he dies a horrible death," Dib countered my thoughts with a tone that made him sound like he wished he was down there to murder Gui himself. Sighing slightly, I gave Dib a small, exasperated glance while he leaned over Wei Bo's head. He was too busy muttering dark threats at Gui to notice my attention.

The boy was apparently my best friend, and I supposed it was normal for such a person to get mad for their friend's sake, and this was only a game, but really. Wishing death on someone just because they'd said something mean? I wondered if something else was bothering Dib. Misplaced anger. Perhaps I would ask him later when he was calmer.

Looking back toward the arena, I fixed my eyes on Gui again. Feeling a bit courageous, I shakily opened a private message. **"Good luck,"** I hesitantly called, and promptly shut my mouth, dreading what his response might be. If he would respond, anyway. Well, even if he ignored me, I'd still given him a little support.

Gui seemed a bit startled and ran his eyes over the boisterous crowd for a moment, though I highly doubted that he would be able to spot me, and then smiled while he turned his attentions back to his teammates. **"Thank you."**

"BATTLE, BEGIN!" the referee then screamed, and my whole body tensed while I stared at Gui. A moment later, I wondered if something had gone wrong. No one in the audience was making noise anymore, and no one down in the arena was moving.

Holding my breath in the silence, I glanced around myself. Everyone nearby seemed to be just as on edge as I.

Several oddly calm minutes passed, and suddenly a giant beastman near the middle of the arena yelled something I couldn't quite hear, and ran forward toward one of the other huge groups, who than ran forward as well, leaving the other third of the competitors standing still. I'd thought the screams of the spectators was loud, but the roar of noise from the fight was even more deafening.

My mouth dropped open when I went to look back at Gui and found that he wasn't there anymore. Hurriedly picking my eyes through the chaotic fray below me, I tried to find him again, though it was completely impossible to differentiate one person from the other anymore. He couldn't have rushed into the fight that quickly, could he have?

It became even more difficult to see what was going on when the air began to fill with dozens of streaks of light from players dying, and I soon gave up trying to find him. At least for the moment. Hopefully he and the others would be able to survive in all of the mess.

Quite a bit of time passed while the fight continued with ceaseless fury, and I was getting very tired of watching the carnage play out in front of me. The rest of the audience seemed not to share my feelings, and they continued to cheer for whatever team it was that they were supporting.

Observing all of the slaughter, I was starting to feel nauseous as a result. I couldn't begin to count the times I'd winced already when someone got chopped up. Dying in disgusting ways one after the other after the other. I was starting to feel twinges of pain, and I wasn't even the one getting murdered. But I attempted to quell the discomfort, and kept watching as best I could for Gui's sake. If his team really did win by some miracle or another, I didn't want to miss the moment. It seemed as though one of the large alliances had been wiped out, anyway, so perhaps things would go quicker.

A moment later, two groups began to form and organize themselves again from the remaining members of the other two alliances, and I watched, feeling extremely relieved, when Prince detached himself from the crowd and went to stand with his team and another, neither of which I'd noticed had been standing over there. They were all alive, and I couldn't help but let out a sigh of alleviation when I saw Gui was still unharmed. Though that fact didn't seem like it would last long as that announcer obnoxiously pointed out the Odd Squad's neutral stance in the conflict.

Several more minutes passed, and I jumped slightly when a shower of meteors abruptly began raining down on the arena, followed closely by a great deal of lightening from another spell. The sky was once again filled with pillars of light as the spells greatly diminished the already-much-smaller number of remaining competitors.

Once the air was clear, I stared, wide-eyed, at the tiny number of people who remained alive. The Odd Squad and that other team they'd been standing with suddenly charged forward and began murdering everyone they came across. My heart pounded furiously as if I was one of the fighters while I watched Gui dash across the ground, shooting people as he went. Perhaps they really were going to win.

Wishing the commentator would shut up so I could concentrate, I anxiously watched while the two final teams began to battle. I smiled slightly, feeling proud of Gui when he shot down several of the opposing team's members. But my smile fell off a moment later when those two spells suddenly started blasting through the air again, and several more players died.

The pride over Gui's impressive actions slipped into annoyance while I waited once again for the area to clear so I could see what was going on. The dust slowly settled, and I hurriedly looked over the arena. Only one person was left, and I was filled with disappointment when I saw it wasn't Gui or one of his teammates.

"DARK PHANTOM WINS!" the announcer screamed, his voice nearly getting drowned out by the crowd's wild cheering when the lone player stumbled to his feet, looking like he was weak enough that even the vibrations rippling through the air from the yelling could kill him.

However, before he could die from an overdose of cheers, as did the cheers at the beginning of the competition, everyone abruptly fell silent when a hand suddenly poked out of the ground, and it was followed shortly by the rest of Lolidragon.

Attempting not to laugh at the sight, I watched while the final enemy died, and the roaring was resumed with increased intensity when the commentator announced the Odd Squad as being the actual victors.

They had really done it. Even if it was an insane idea to compete, one that I still thought was terrible and stupid.

Glancing again at Dib, I smiled in amusement while we followed the thick flow of people leaving the stadium. The boy was clutching Wei Bo's head with an falteringly irritated frown, looking like he didn't know whether he wanted to be angry or happy at the outcome of the competition. Gui had died, like Dib was hoping for, but he'd also won.

"Let's meet up with them," Wei Bo suggested, leading us out of the main stream of people, most of whom seemed to be heading for the teleporting platform. "It shouldn't take them long to retrieve their prize."

"Do we have to?" Dib grumbled when Wei Bo lowered him to the ground. "I feel like I'll attack Gui again if we see him so soon after what he did yesterday."

"Well, we don't _have_ to, I suppose," Wei Bo agreed, scratching the back of his head for a moment. "I thought maybe Aeolus would want to meet up with him. But we could just go back to Moon City for now, and see him later."

Raising an eyebrow at the others, I shrugged slightly when they all expectantly looked at me as if they hoped I'd have some sort of opinion on the matter. Of course I wanted to stay and see Gui, but if everyone else didn't want to, I could wait, especially if it meant preventing more fights. I'd already been waiting eleven years, what was another night or two?

**"Zian, where are you?"** Gui unexpectedly suddenly called, cutting across the continued conversation between my teammates.

**"Just outside the arena at the moment, a few shops east of the teleporter,"** I answered slowly, feeling torn between apprehension and happiness that he'd messaged me on his own. I froze for a moment, wondering what his reason was. What if it had been his teammates who told him to do it? What if he was simply going to give me a forced apology before reverting back to how he was before?

**"We'l****l****—****Ouch! We'll be there soon, and I****—****Damn people, get out of my way! I need to talk to you! Stay there!"** he ordered, sounding as though he was attempting to fight through the sea of players again while he spoke.

"They're coming," I informed the others while I ran my eyes over the boisterous crowd, wondering how far away they still were.

"Huh? Weren't you listening to me?" Dib demanded indignantly.

"No," I answered bluntly. "But Gui Wen says he wants to speak to me, and you don't have to be present for that, so calm down. You guys can hang out with the rest of his team while we're gone." I gave a smile to Jiū and Dib's angry and somewhat anxious expressions, and returned to my crowd searching. "Don't worry, you two. I can handle him by myself."

"I think I should–" Dib began, but stopped when I shook my head at him. He pressed his lips together, and defiantly stared up at me. "But what if he–"

"I said don't worry," I firmly interrupted. He fell silent with an extremely disbelieving frown, and I knelt down in front of him, reassuringly patting a hand on his head. "I'm grateful for your concern, but you don't always have to protect me. It'll be fine, okay?"

Dib's eyes widened slightly, and several silent moments passed. He suddenly pushed my hand off his head. Giving me a sigh when I stood again, he crossed his arms and smirked. "Way to throw my words back at me, Al… Fine, we can wait for you in one of the restaurants or something while you two talk."

"No way," Wei Bo muttered, a pained look on his face. "A restaurant? That'll be a nightmare with all these people here. All three are sure to be packed. I've had more than enough of being in crowds, after getting squished for so long in the stadium."

"Well, we can leave the city, then," I suggested. Even with as many people as there was, I was sure we'd be able to find some place or another in the expanse of wilderness where the crowds weren't loitering about.

"But I'm hungry," Avila said, giving a rub to her stomach for dramatic effect. I held up a finger to her, and started digging around in my pouch. Smiling, I felt my hand close around a squashy cloth bundle. I pulled it out and quickly handed it to her. She gave me an extremely suspicious look, and lifted a corner of the handkerchief.

"…And how long have these been in there?" she asked slowly, lifting the uncovered slices of my honey bread up to her pink eyes for an inspection.

"I don't know. But I ate a little piece last night, and they're still good," I answered, not feeling at all surprised by her careful actions. I'd seen the bread in my pouch last night when I'd been going through it out of boredom while waiting for the others to stop ranting and raving about how mad they were at Gui. Not being able to remember when I'd bought them, I had no idea how long it had been since their purchase.

"You still had those? Geeze, you're so weird," Dib said, glancing between me and the bundle with a very amused expression while Avila took an experimental bite of the bread, apparently not believing me about its freshness. It seemed to pass the test, though, and she handed some to Xiu Chen and Jiū.

"You must have been really bored to have eaten potentially stale and moldy bread," Wei Bo mused, staring at me with a slightly disgusted look on his face.

I frowned at him and held up my fingers in a pinching gesture. "I only ate this much."

"Who'd eat even that much of spoiled bread?" he asked, drawing his eyebrows together. "That's gross! And really weird, especially since it's you that did it! Then again, is that why we've been having such trouble getting you to eat? You only like food that's gone bad? Well, I'll bring up a garbage can to your room tomorrow."

"Oh, be quiet!" I snapped. "That's not the reason! I just rarely get hungry!"

He didn't look any more convinced than before, but didn't get a chance to retaliate.

I glanced past Wei Bo and gasped when I saw Gui and the others struggle out of a stream of people, looking as though they'd been beaten up a second time along the way by the crowds.

"Good grief! It's a nightmare out here!" Lolidragon huffed when she stopped beside us, putting her pink hair back into order and shooting a murderous look back toward the crowd. "My butt was grabbed at least ten times!"

"At least it was only your butt," Prince muttered, a blank look on his face. He didn't bother to put his disheveled appearance back the way it was supposed to be.

Not particularly wanting to know what the elf had meant by that, I walked in silence while we all made our way to the city gate, hoping that what Gui wanted to say to me was something positive.

* * *

_Al's been carrying around that bread since chapter 5… I figured I should get rid of it somehow. o-O_


	28. Controversial Socks

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

"Remember, if Gui gives you any trouble while you're talking, call me and I'll come beat him up for you again. I'll be sure to stay nearby just in case," Dib whispered sternly, giving my arm several smacks as if he thought that would help assure me of his support. Rather than feeling relieved, I really wished people would stop smacking me. It happened all the time, for some unknown reason. Could they really think of no other way to express themselves than with their fists? Especially Dib. He seemed to always be on the lookout for opportunities to hit things.

"I won't," Gui said, glancing down at us while he restlessly shifted from one foot to the other in wait, and then added under his breath, "intentionally."

"Go away! Stop eavesdropping!" Dib commanded, shooting a glare up at him before turning back to me and saying quietly, "Really, if he does–"

"I won't," I echoed, smiling at Dib's determined expression while I stood up and took a few steps backward. "Behave yourself. See you in a while," I called with a wave as I left him with the others and walked away with Gui.

"Have a nice chat!" Doll yelled after us as we strode through the grass. "Try not to say anything stupid again to my servant, GuiGui!"

Gui didn't respond to her, aside from lowering his eyebrows slightly in annoyance. I briefly looked over my shoulder to watch while the others walked in the other direction, curious as to why that girl kept calling me such things. Perhaps I would be able to remember after some thought, but doing so all the time was endlessly aggravating. I often had to remind myself to be patient with my forgetfulness. It had only been two weeks, after all. I doubted my head would heal in such a short span of time. Though, not being an expert on amnesia, I had no idea just how long I would have to wait until I would be able to remember things again. Maybe Gui had a medical book I could flip through.

Sending a small glance in Gui's direction, I turned back to pay attention to where I was going, wondering when he was going to start talking. He was staring straight ahead, looking as nervous as I, so I let the silence continue.

"Dib sure is protective of you," he finally remarked once we were completely out of sight of the others. He smiled faintly and lowered himself onto the dark grass. I settled beside him, nodding slightly and wishing I could remember why he was. We must have been very close for him to lash out at Gui with such… enthusiasm? Or maybe he was just violent, I thought as I absently stared at the ground while waiting for Gui to continue.

"Do you all know each other in real life?" he asked quietly, looking like he was attempting to plaster a polite smile on his face, though he was failing miserably.

"Yes. And, except for Dib, we all live together," I affirmed, wondering why he'd steered the conversation in such a direction. Though I supposed it was better to talk about small things first, rather than leaping directly into the nasty parts of what I assumed we both wanted to say.

"That must be fun, having your teammates so close by," he murmured, looking somewhat wistful at the thought. "I know Ugly Wolf, and that's nice, but it would be nicer with… certain others," he ended with a small sigh, sounding like he was talking more to himself than to me. Somehow, I doubted the "certain other" would agree with his wants.

When he turned his attention back to me, he raised his eyebrows a tiny bit and briefly looked confused. "You aren't living with father?"

"Not anymore. He sent me to live at the Lin estate a couple weeks ago," I answered slowly. "So, just for clarification, I'm not here to spy on you for him, or anything of that sort. But you don't have to tell Jiū and I your address if you don't want to do so. He will probably be at the wedding, anyway, if only for appearances. If you're uncomfortable with the idea, don't feel obligated to come just because we invited you."

"Oh," he said softly, nodding for a moment and he relaxing slightly. I wondered if he was relieved that I allowed him a way out of the occasion. I wouldn't have been surprised if that was the case, but that didn't mean I didn't feel somewhat annoyed that he didn't want to come. It was just a wedding, and not like I was inviting him to stay at our father's house for a month. But the levels of our tolerance for various things were obviously quite different.

"I'm sorry for my attitude yesterday," he continued hesitantly, twisting his fingers together with an anxious look on his face. "It was uncalled for, as has been my hostility toward you all of the other times we've met. You've been nothing but civil, and I kept assuming you had some ulterior motive for being around."

I sat silently for a few moments, wondering if I was supposed to say I forgave him. It seemed rather high and mighty to say such a thing, and I was neither, so instead I settled for answering with, "It's not like you don't have your reasons," while I picked a few blades of grass and twisted them around one another.

Gui sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I know, but I still… I'm sorry," he repeated. I simply nodded in response, not wanting to look up.

"What's been going on since I left?" he asked softly.

"Nothing special. Just the usual, only more frequently," I replied, dropping the grass and staring vacantly at the black, starry horizon. "You aren't the only one who blames me for what happened."

Gui wordlessly stared at the ground in front of himself, suddenly not moving at all. That was an odd response. Was it really so surprising that our father would also blame me? Even before Gui left, such things had been happening for every little thing that went wrong. How our father treated us was another glaring contrast between Gui and I. While Gui was the epitome of perfection, I was simply a mistake. Our father had made sure to remind me as frequently as possible.

"A day didn't go by that he forgot to tell me he wished you were still there," I muttered, smirking slightly at the thought. "I never asked him, but I'm sure that if I had, he would have told me that he would prefer our roles be reversed. Having me gone, and you at home."

As I spoke, Gui's blank face was suddenly smothered with a disgusted expression. Snorting, he rested his chin on one hand and narrowed his eyes. "Well, now he doesn't have either of us, the moron. He's doing such a great job of making me want to come back."

Frowning slightly, I felt anger rise up at his words. I wasn't sure if I'd been riled up by his reluctance to to home or by my own bizarre desire to return. But I held myself back from snapping that Gui could have gone back whenever he wished, and my father would have definitely welcomed him back with open arms. I doubted he'd even open the front gate for me. He'd probably get the house security to drive me away.

"Zian?" Gui called quietly. I looked at him, feeling a bit surprised at how concerned he seemed. "Last night, what… what did Dib mean when he said father was abusive? I… I know he used to hit you sometimes, but I don't think something like that would make Dib so angry."

"I told you already," I answered, looking away again. "'The usual, only more frequently,' ever since just after you left. That's partially the reason I'm living with Jiū and the others, I suppose. I can't remember why, but Jiao said that father got angry at me two weeks ago and pushed me down the front stairs. Now I can't go to work until my injuries ha–"

Gui's mouth dropped open, and he leaned forward, suddenly looking furious while he grabbed my shoulders and shook me back and forth. "I ASKED YOU WHAT WAS HAPPENING, AND YOU SAID 'NOTHING SPECIAL'! 'THE USUAL'? WHAT–"

"Yes, the _usual_," I repeated, giving him a blank stare as he continued to grasp my arms. "It's always been happening, he didn't simply hit me. Just because you had your face in a book all of the time means you weren't paying attention to anything else?"

"But he never did anything to me. I didn't…" Gui's voice slowly faded out, and he looked back at me with unease. That only made me more annoyed. Why was he bothering to seem worried after he'd been the one to leave it all behind? What did he care about things going on in his absence?

"Of course he never did anything to you," I continued angrily in his place. "He loves _you_. Why would he incapacitate you when he has a useless son right here to pulverize on a daily basis?"

Quickly detaching his hands from my shoulders and standing up, I took a few steps away to keep myself from murdering him right then and there. I already knew he hadn't noticed my abuse while he was still home, but it was maddening beyond words to actually hear him say so.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Gui whispered furiously. "I would have stopped him!"

"Why was it _necessary_ to tell you?" I asked, forcing myself to stay facing the other direction. "It was never a secret. You were too focused on your own business, and just never took notice. Anyway, the only thing talking about it would have accomplished was further beatings for 'whining'."

"Why do you always assume talking about your problems will make things worse?" he snapped. "You've always kept everything you're thinking to yourself, and never tell me what's going on! How am I supposed to help you if you won't let me understand the damn situation?"

He took a few calming breaths, and then stood up to stand beside me again. "You know, if you'd simply spoken to me all those years ago instead of telling father, none of this would have happened."

Slowly closing my eyes, I barely stopped myself from smiling at how hopeless this all was. The conversation was going absolutely nowhere. We'd talked in a circle, and now we were back to how everything was my fault. Why had he even bothered to request I talk to him if he was just going to pile everything on me yet again?

"Well, hearing you say that makes things much more simple," I breathed, opening my eyes again to look him at last. "I've been wanting to say 'I'm sorry' to you for eleven years, and there you have it. I'm sorry. There is nothing I regret more than betraying the trust you had in me, and I hope that you will be able to forgive me at some point. But don't worry, I'm not expecting it to be any time soon."

"Wait, where are you going?" Gui called after me when I started off across the grass.

Pausing, I glanced at him over my shoulder. "You've made yourself perfectly clear, and there is no point in continuing this conversation. It seems I'm never going to hear anything from you or father other than how _I_ should have done things differently. You two never stop to think that perhaps you are also at fault. I have no interest in arguing with you further."

"What? Stop putting words in my mouth!" Gui roared, moving to stand in front of me so I couldn't leave. "I meant that you should have told _me_ what you were thinking instead of father, so we could have fixed it! If that would have been been possible! You should have said you didn't want me to leave! I would have stayed!"

"Why would you have ever stayed in that house?" I asked in disbelief. "Father may not have abused you, but he certainly never missed a chance to flaunt his control."

"I would have stayed for you," he hissed in return. "I wasn't as inattentive as you seem to think."

"You were inattentive enough not to notice all the bruises and broken bones. I realized a long time ago what's important to you and what isn't," I said coolly, pushing him lightly to one side and walking on.

"Zian, come back! I'm not finished!"

I reluctantly halted and turned to face him again. "What more could you possibly have to say? Just leave me alone, and go live however the hell you want like you've been doing this whole time."

"You were the one who approached me, so stop talking as if I forced you to come here!" he yelled. "I didn't even want to talk to you in the first place, but you kept—Come _BACK_!"

"We should continue this later, I don't want to talk to you while we're both angry," I replied quietly before striding away. **"We're finished,"** I called over the team channel, trying to beat down the urge to log out. **"Where are you guys?"**

**"Sounds like things didn't go so well, hm?" **Lolidragon's voice piped in.

**"As well as they could for now,"** I muttered, watching while everyone appeared over one of the star-lit hills. Gui thankfully made no more efforts to speak, and silently walked along behind me. What was the point of all of that if he hadn't even wanted to talk? Perhaps we would be able to continue later on, but it seemed as though he was never going to change his attitude so we could stop the endless fighting. Why was he so determined to be the innocent one?

Dib raced ahead of the others, looking suspiciously between Gui and I. He crashed into my leg a moment later, hugging it tightly. "Pick me up!" he ordered, letting my leg go and lifting his arms. Though I didn't particularly want to carry him, I obeyed. He anxiously patted my cheek once he was in place. **"What happened?"** he sent through a private message.

Hoisting Dib up a bit further, I shook my head. **"Nothing that hasn't happened before, though this time was less heated, I suppose."**

Wrapping his arms around my neck, he sighed and leaned against my chest. **"What a vague answer. I don't get any specifics? Did you forget**–**"**

**"You're my best friend, right?"** I supplied before he could remind me yet again. **"But I don't remember you, so please understand that I'm not comfortable with sharing such personal things with a person I only just met. Or so it seems from my viewpoint."**

Dib made an dissatisfied grumbly noise and tightened his grip until I could barely breathe. **"Why'd you pick me up if you don't know me? Isn't it weird, carrying some kid you don't remember? You coulda refused if you didn't wanna."**

**"I did it because you told me to,"** I quietly answered, **"that's all."**

He sighed again and loosened his arms, looking melancholic while he pressed his face to my neck. **"I want my friend back."**

**"…So do I."** After my soft agreement, we fell into a strained silence. Once we reached the others, on his request I put him down again and together, we walked with everyone back toward Star City, saying our goodbyes to the Odd Squad at the still-slightly-crowded teleporting platform.

Gui glanced at me and then hurried forward. Yanking me into a rough hug, he patted me on the back for a moment. "Don't think I'm done talking with you," he grumbled, and then pushed me backward before he turned away to join his team again.

"Come visit our new city sometime!" Ugly Wolf called, waving a clawed hand energetically, and then they vanished, teleporting off somewhere.

I stared blankly at where they'd been standing, and then glanced in bewilderment at the others. "What did he just say?"

"Their prize for winning the Grand Melee was an entire city," Wei Bo supplied, looking flabbergasted. My eyes widened at the unexpected news. That explained why so many people had entered into the tournament. Not that I would have wanted to compete, whatever the prize had been. Running a city sounded extremely tiring.

Mentally shrugging off my surprise, I sighed and turned to my team. "What should we do, now? Go back to Moon City?"

"OH!" Dib suddenly yelled. I stared down at him, feeling extremely startled when he ran toward me and grabbed my hand, excitedly tugging it up and down. One moment he was angry, the next he was sad, the next he was hyper. What a confusing person.

"Let's register as an official team, first! I bet the Adventurers' Guild isn't as crowded as it was, now that the Grand Melee is over! Let's go!" Without waiting for the agreement of everyone else, Dib pulled me away, yanking me down the dark road.

After we'd meandered through the straggling crowds of players, we stepped into the huge guild hall, and Dib broke out into a run, heading for a NPC standing in one of the corners. Dib finally dropped my hand and breathlessly turned around. "What should we call ourselves?"

He hadn't thought about that before hurrying us here? I'd assumed he had some sort of idea to act on. Somehow, this situation felt familiar.

I glanced around myself, frowning at the stifling crowds, and quickly walked to the other side of my team where I would have room to breathe beside the wall of pillars. The others chattered to one another energetically as I watched in silence.

"Any ideas?" Xiu Chen asked me, green eyes shining with anticipation.

I shook my head at her. "I don't particularly care what we're called." Nor had I ever given it a shred of thought.

Wei Bo made a huffing noise, and crossed his arms. "So, you wouldn't care if we name ourselves the Fluffy Pixies or something?"

Staring at him in amusement, I shrugged noncommittally. "If that's _really_ what you want us to be called, go right ahead. But don't regret it later and start whining about how ridiculous it sounds."

He looked extremely annoyed, and his scowl deepened. "That was just an example!" he snapped, his face flushing slightly at my breezy response, which he apparently hadn't been expecting. He was always trying to start fights with me over bizarre things. Rather than feeling angry at him for it, his attempts were starting to become quite entertaining.

"We need something cool!" Dib exclaimed with a very determined expression.

"And tough!" Avila added, looking equally determined.

"What sorts of things are cool and tough?" Jiū mused, staring off into space.

"Ice cubes," I vaguely answered, wishing they would hurry up so we could leave. Not that I was particularly helping the process go any faster.

"Not _that_ kind of cool!" Dib fumed, giving my leg an angry punch.

"Anyway, ice cubes are more along the lines of crunchy, rather than tough," Xiu Chen corrected in a serious tone and she frowned thoughtfully.

"Well, maybe not little cubes. But if it's a big slab, I would think one could call it 'tough,'" I continued, more out of boredom than actually wanting to explain myself. "Like a layer of ice, which could hold a person's weight, covering a pond."

Xiu Chen's eyebrows flew upward and she nodded at my words. "Oh, I see. Yes, I suppose that could be a kind of toughness."

"Quit going off-topic!" Avila and Dib yelled in unison, sounding annoyed at our lack of enthusiasm over name-picking.

"The Furious Warriors!" Wei Bo suggested.

"I'm not a warrior," Xiu Chen pointed out.

"That sounds stupid, anyway. The Faction of Royalty!"

"No! The Blades of Darkness!"

"Annihilators of Evil!"

"Muscular–"

"Please, stop trying to make up names that are 'cool' for the sake of being 'cool,'" I requested, feeling somewhat irritated at the weird suggestions being taken into consideration. "Just pick something simple, and stop arguing."

"If you're so smart, think up something, then!" Dib challenged.

"The Syndicate of Controversy," I muttered off the top of my head, "because we never agree. SoC for short, since the full name is a mouthful. See? Simple and easy, and uses big words so it sounds impressive as well."

"You want to call us the Socks?" Wei Bo stormed, looking thoroughly outraged at such a name.

"It's better than being called by your brilliant idea, the Fluffy Pixies," I countered huffily. "And I didn't say 'socks', I said 'S-o-C'! There's a big difference!"

"I like socks," Avila informed.

Dib suddenly ran off toward the team registration table. "NO-O-O!" Wei Bo screamed, chasing after him. "I wasn't finished discussing! I don't want to name us the Syndicate of Contro… Whatever! That makes us sound like suit-wearing snobs, who always argue!"

"You just described yourself," Avila mused, not that he heard her.

**"TEAM REGISTRATION COMPLETE!"** the game blared, cutting across Wei Bo's continued frenzy while he yanked Dib away from the registration NPC slightly too late.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, YOU IMPULSIVE MORON?" Wei Bo roared while he attempted to strangle the laughing boy. Dib shook his head and he laughed harder, his face becoming increasingly flushed from both the laughter and the choking. Not wanting to get injured yet again, I watched from a safe distance while they began to fight one another.

Was my suggestion really so terrible? Though we really could have thought about it more. It wasn't like he had actually named us the… Wait a minute. He hadn't, had he?

Jiū stared at the fight for a moment, and then hurriedly said "System!" in a somewhat panicky tone. Her gaze went unfocused. "Oh, goodness," she slowly muttered, gray eyes wide, face looking a bit pale.

"What?" I asked, feeling a bit worried at her expression.

"He really named us the Socks."


	29. Missing

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

Staring blankly into the bathroom mirror, I watched, feeling slightly annoyed at my carelessness, while a red line drew itself down my jaw. Pressing my lips together tightly in an effort to hold in the yelling I wanted to let loose, I set down my razor and quickly washed the blood off my chin, squashing a piece of wet toilet paper onto the cut to stop further dribbling. Picking up my razor again, I gave it a reproving frown. Not being able to use my left arm—namely the hand attached to said arm—was horrendously irritating. I'd never quite realized just how much I depended on my now-temporarily-useless limb. After it would heal, I was determined to never take it for granted again.

"Carefully…" I murmured to myself, leaning toward the mirror as if that would help steady my wavering grip while I lifted the razor toward my cheek to resume the battle between beard and blade. Before the razor came in contact with my skin, I froze in surprise when the bathroom door suddenly flew open and Jiao hurried inside, giving me a frown from over my shoulder. How did she always know just when I didn't want her to pop up?

"What do you think you're doing?" she asked, eying my halted razor, partially shaved and cut cheek, and guilty face.

Wishing I'd locked the door, I turned around and wiggled the razor for a moment in my hand. "Shaving," I meekly explained, attempting to tear my gaze away from her stern I-told-you-not-to-do-that expression.

Jiao stepped forward and gently unwound my fingers from around the razor's handle. "I said I'd help you with this," she told me in a somewhat irritated tone while she rinsed the blades off in the sink. Turning me toward the mirror again, she put one hand on my chin and began shaving the ragged spots I'd clumsily gone over already.

"Remember what happened last time you tried to do it yourself?" she muttered, eyebrows drawn together in concentration. I hoped she wasn't expecting an answer. I didn't particularly want to move my mouth around while she had a very sharp object pressed to the underside of my chin.

She suddenly poked the stuck-on toilet paper and shook her head. "This happened! All over the place!"

I fixed my eyes on the opposite wall, and inwardly rolled them. It hadn't been my fault that my forehead had just happened to feel itchy the last time I'd been trying to shave. Though I supposed the fact that I'd tried to scratch the itchy spot while not putting down the razor—resulting in a cut just over my eye—was indeed my fault. But it wasn't like I'd been trying to shave my eyebrow off, or whatever it was that Jiao had assumed I'd been doing.

When Jiao released my chin to rinse off the razor again, I glanced down at her and quietly explained, "Everyone keeps helping me with every little thing, it's frustrating."

She sighed softly and nodded while continuing my shave. "I know you prefer to do things yourself, and it must be annoying to have people constantly fretting over you, but it really can't be helped until your arm is healed. You still have nearly a month before your cast can be removed. Just be patient, okay?" she asked with a smile as she ran the blade over my lip and then set it on the edge of the sink. Plucking off my make-shift bandage, she threw it in the small waste basket on the floor, and quickly poured a bit of aftershave into her palm. Giving me a mischievous smirk, she abruptly smeared it all over my face.

"Ouch." Tightly closing my eyes, I attempted to block out the stinging sensation. Stupid, inconvenient facial hair. I'd come to hate it even more once other people had sprang to the task of shaving it off for me, since I couldn't do a neat job of it anymore.

Not only did I dislike getting fawned over, I didn't want to be more of a bother than I already was. And though I was partially enjoying all of the attention from Jiao, I couldn't help but feel angry with myself even further as I continued to depend on her while she had so many other things she could be using her precious time on. Perhaps I was simply making a big mental mess out of nothing, since it was only shaving, and a temporary situation at that, but I didn't want to be a husband who counted on his wife for everything. Not being able to do something so basic on my own made me feel, well, _wimpy_.

"Now then," Jiao said when she led me back into the bedroom, "Chen-jiĕ and I have classes until late afternoon, we'll be back around when Mei Rong-mèi comes home. And Delun-dàgē has already left for work. Although no one will be around to remind you, be sure to eat a _proper_ breakfast and lunch, not only what _you_ think qualifies," she listed off, sounding slightly amused through her commanding tone while she pulled me into a swift hug. I nodded into her shoulder as a response, giving her a brief, one-armed embrace before she hurried out the door and waved goodbye.

I stared at the empty doorway for a moment, listening to her receding footsteps, and then walked to my desk. Picking up my little messenger bag, I then left the room. I wasn't hungry, but I made my way downstairs, anyway, knowing Jiao would probably ask the house staff once she came home if I'd eaten or not. Already having faced her annoyance over shaving by myself, I wasn't keen on having to do so a second time. Then again, her huffy face was rather cute. But, unlike Certain Other People, I didn't want to purposefully irritate those around me—well, being annoying was okay every now and again, I supposed—and instead preferred to do as I was told.

Slipping into the warm, lively kitchen, I paused when one of the maids hurried forward, waving a bright yellow dish towel at me. "Good morning, Zian-xiānshēng!" she greeted cheerily, giving me a short bow before bouncing straight again.

"Good morning," I replied, smiling slightly at her. I still wasn't quite used to how friendly the servants were in the Lin household. While the ones at home were all flat and emotionless nearly to the point of being inhuman, everyone here was extremely enthusiastic about anything and everything. They even looked at me when we spoke to one another.

How audacious.

"Jiao has ordered me to have a 'proper breakfast'," I explained in amusement when she stared at me expectantly. At my words, she gave gasp, a nod, and twirled around, hurrying to give instructions to the cook. I hoped they would have mercy on my nonexistent appetite.

Wandering into the sunny dining room, I sat myself down near the door and set my bag on top of the table. Reaching a few seats over, I slid a newspaper toward myself and stared down at it for a moment, nearly laughing. A small, hand-written note was taped onto the front page.

_"Twig_~_  
Something for you to occupy yourself with during breakfast.  
PS: Eat all of your food, or else I will murder you tonight. (In-game.)  
PPS: As a reminder, Dib is coming over this evening.  
PPPS: __**EAT**__**‼**__  
_~_Delun"_

"Okay, okay," I muttered at the note. Opening the top of my bag, I took out a small book and set it on top of the paper. Flipping it open to the first page, I peeled the note off the newspaper and stuck it to the page instead, smirking at the death threat. What a wonderful younger brother I'd gotten myself. Though he was extremely crass, I supposed I was a bit grateful that he'd gone to the trouble of writing the note in the first place. It was as close to being concerned for my well-being as Delun usually got.

Turning the page, I searched for the name "Dib" while I continued to wait for my breakfast. Quirking an eyebrow, I looked over the writing below the picture of me—I looked rather annoyed at having my picture taken—getting hugged very tightly by a cheerily smiling man—Shi Heng, I could remember him visiting me at some point in the recent past—I'd stopped on. Directly under the picture were the words "Best friends~Al and Dib" written, underlined, highlighted with bright colors, and edged with countless little smiley faces and arrows in a large, looping handwriting that definitely wasn't mine. Heng must have written it. Did he really have to do it so flashily?

After a quick read-through of what I myself had written about him, I turned the page and repeated the process. Feeling very tired of having people introduced to me so often, I'd made a list of everyone—pictures included, of course—I was supposed to remember.

Often I would go back to read through the little reminder book, over and over, whenever I came across a name I couldn't place, or even if I was simply feeling bored. Perhaps just looking through it even when I could still remember was helpful when it came to prolonging my hold on the memory. I didn't know if it would do me any good or not, but I still did it just in case. Exercising my brain with the continual memorization was probably a good thing, anyway.

Pulling out a pencil, I turned to a page I'd reserved exclusively for little notes and carefully wrote down what Jiao had told me before she'd left. As carefully as I could, anyway. It was legible, at least. I didn't particularly want to forget what she'd said, and then wonder where everyone was. It had already happened quite a few times—going about my business and suddenly coming to realize I don't know what's going on… Not a very nice feeling.

Returning the book and pencil back to my bag, I leaned back in my chair when that maid threw open the door, tray in hand, and hurried to the table. "Sorry for the wait, here's your breakfast!" she chirped, sliding the tray in front of me. Glancing down, I felt very relieved at the amount of food. It was more than I would have chosen to eat, but a great deal less than everyone had initially been trying to stuff me with.

"Thank you," I said, giving her a polite smile and picking up the fork that had been provided. Arranging the utensil awkwardly in my hand, I poked it into the egg sitting on one of the plates. The fork may have been easier to use than chopsticks, but it was still very strange-feeling, and it took me quite a bit of effort to bring a piece of egg up to my mouth at last.

The maid watched my struggle with a very anxious look on her face. When I swallowed, her eyes widened. "How is it?" she asked, sounding worried.

"Good," I answered, feeling very confused as to why she wanted to know.

She gave a relieved sigh and a pleased smile settled on her face. "Thank goodness! I'm the one who cooked it!"

"Oh," I breathed, nodding. "Thank you, it's very tasty." I sent her a small grin again, wishing somewhat that she would just go away so I could eat my breakfast in peace. But I didn't want to be rude, so I tried to keep my patience together.

The brightness of her expression was suddenly raised several notches, and she wrung her hands around the hem of her white apron. "R-really?" she inquired as if she hadn't believed me, though I'd said it twice already. At my confirming nod, she abruptly looked away from me, blushing slightly. What in the world was wrong with her? It was just an egg. Anyway, didn't she have anything better to do than watch me eat?

Feeling uncomfortable under her renewed stare, I ate the rest of the egg as fast as I could and hurriedly started on my bowl of sliced fruit. Thankfully, the cook bustled into the dining hall a moment later, wearing an extremely irritated scowl, and dragged the maid away. She waved forlornly at me while she disappeared around the door frame, telling me she was looking forward to lunch.

No wonder I'd been eating in my bedroom whenever I could.

Gulping down my daily medication with a large glass of icy orange juice, I stood up and slipped my bag onto my shoulder. Arranging the empty dishes neatly on the tray, I picked it up, bracing it against one hip, and carefully went back to the kitchen.

After enduring a moment of scolding, a lecture I was sure I'd already gone through many, many times, from one of the more elderly maids—apparently I wasn't supposed to bring in the dishes myself, not that I cared either way—I hurried out the back door and took a deep breath of the morning air, blowing it out again while I stepped away from the house. Zipping up my jacket a bit farther to block out the slightly chilly air, I tilted my head back and smiled up at the leafy trees looming over me.

This house was very nice to stay in compared to my father's, but I found the outside to be even nicer. Especially Jiao's garden all the way at the corner of the property. I wasn't sure if I was really _allowed_ to be outside by myself, for obvious reasons, but with that annoying maid still fresh in my memory, I wasn't particularly keen on the idea of going back inside to find myself an escort. Still, it wasn't like I was trying to drive my car to the city, or anything like that. My car keys had been confiscated a long time ago, anyway.

Walking slowly along the grassy path, I stared absently into space, not particularly paying attention to where I was going. More important was what I was supposed to do with myself for close to six hours until Jiao came home. While I did enjoy being by myself quite a bit, I enjoyed being with her even more.

Striding along, alone, I was feeling increasingly lonely. Perhaps I was being rather silly, since it had barely been an hour, if even that, since she'd left, but I missed her already, regardless. Was I becoming too clingy in my dependent state? What if she didn't miss me as much as I was missing her? The thought of asking her suddenly popped up, but that seemed like something extremely embarrassing to ask about, so I attempted to push it from my mind.

Sighing slightly, I quickened my pace, more to warm myself up than to get to the garden quicker. It was only early October, but the morning was rather chilly. At least, I thought that it was. Jiao hadn't seemed to think so—she'd been wearing a sleeveless shirt and skirt. However, being the Twig that I was, getting cold was annoyingly easy, even while wearing a sweater and a jacket. I'd gotten more than a few strange looks donning a jacket outside during the summer even. But staying warm and comfortable was all that I cared about—at least, when no one was around for whom I was supposed to dress nicely—so people could stare all they wanted.

Hefting my bag farther up my shoulder again, I slowed my steps when the large garden finally came into view, stretching across the wide clearing in neatly-arranged rows of vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers. Walking to the arrangement of old lawn chairs beside the garden shed, I stretched out on one, and pulled out my book to read again for lack of anything more interesting to do. Flipping it open, I let it stay on Jiao's page and I stared at her picture, smiling and hoping the hours would pass by quickly.

It seemed as though I got my wish.

I abruptly woke up to the loud ringing of my cellphone. Sitting up, I stared at the darkening, multicolored sky, feeling extremely bewildered. It had gotten very windy while I'd been asleep, and it was much colder than it had been that morning. Why'd I let myself fall asleep out here?

Quickly slipping my phone out of my pocket, I glanced at the screen for a moment before answering through chattering teeth, "Jiao?"

"_WHERE ARE YOU?_" her voice blasted out of the little device and I nearly dropped it in surprise.

"I-I'm at the garden… I fell asleep here by accident."

"_OUTSIDE?_"

"Well, yes. That _is_ where the garden is located," I mumbled, smirking slightly.

"_ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE YOURSELF EVEN MORE HEALTH PROBLEMS?_" she bellowed. Goodness. How long had I been asleep for her to be so angry?

"Please, stop yelling," I requested, standing up off the chair, only to fall over into the damp grass, since my legs were practically frozen.

"_What was that? Did you just fall down?_"

"Ow… yes," I replied after I'd picked up my phone again from where it had flown and grabbed my bag, hurrying as best I could back toward the house. "I'll be home soon."

After listening to her angry yelling for a few moments longer, I closed the cellphone and put it back in my pocket. Ten minutes later, I was shuffling into the house through the back door, and making my way to the library to face the impending doom of Jiao's wrath.

Taking a deep breath when I paused outside the door, I slowly cracked it open and slipped inside. Jiao collided with me before I'd taken barely two steps into the room and roughly hugged me before pounding one of her fists on my chest and glaring up at me.

"Do you have any idea how long we've been looking for you?" she furiously demanded. "I called you hours and hours ago to tell you Chen-dàsăo and I would be home later than I'd said before, and then I finally get back only to find you're missing! You should known damn well that your medication makes you sleepy! Why'd you go so far from the house, alone? Your lips are blue, for goodness sake, YOU IDIOT!" she finished, punching me one last time before dragging me to the table and shoving me into a chair. Sliding a steaming cup of tea in my direction, she threw herself into the chair beside mine, and looked pointedly away, huffing slightly while still mumbling things under her breath.

Attempting to still my shivering, I let my bag drop to the floor and picked up the teacup. Rather than drinking it, I wrapped my fingers around it in an effort to warm them. Hesitantly glancing at the other two sitting at the table, I took a tiny sip and let my eyes drop down again.

"That was really stupid, you know," Delun grumbled. "You may enjoy being by yourself, but what are we supposed to do when we come home and discover that no one knows where you've gone? What happens if you do this again and you forget your cellphone, and can't figure out how you've gotten wherever you've gone?" He paused and sighed, leaning over the table and staring down at his own tea.

"Don't be so thoughtless in the future, okay?" Chen continued softly in her husband's place. "Even if you want to be alone, be sure to leave a note or something to let us know."

I nodded wordlessly, taking another drink of tea. It wasn't out of stubbornness that I wasn't saying anything, but a simple lack of anything _to _say. I'd been scolded countless times in the past, but it was always on some basis or another of me doing something wrong and thus inconveniencing other people. And while that was a part of this particular situation, I knew the reason they were all yelling at me was because they'd been concerned. Not that I liked being yelled at, but it made me happy to know there were people who worried about me. I wasn't quite sure how I was supposed to be reacting to it all.

"Dib went home, by the way," Delun supplied after a moment of silence. "He would have stayed until we found you, but he's got his hands full with those brothers of his. He was really anxious, though… We all were," he muttered, sounding somewhat reluctant to say such a thing.

Sliding his chair back, he stood up, followed shortly by Chen, and shot me a look of annoyance. "Don't do it again," he ordered, and left the room.

Several long, tense minutes passed by, and I ventured a glance at Jiao. She was staring hard down at the tabletop, arms firmly crossed and looking very angry still. "I won't do it again," I said quietly.

Jiao sent me a brief look, and then stood up. I followed suit, picking up my bag as I went, and she led me out of the library, down the hall toward the bedrooms. "I don't understand why you would do such a thing in the first place."

"I-I thought it would be okay, going out by myself… I didn't think it through. I'm sorry," I said pleadingly, hoping she wasn't too angry with me.

"Well, the issue isn't that you went outside by yourself. You're perfectly free to wander around the grounds, alone or not, if you want. The problem is that you did it without telling anyone," she answered after we'd reached my bedroom. "You need to stop thinking you can do everything on your own, and start relying on people. Namely me."

"I do rely on you," I muttered. Stepping inside the room, I set my bag on the desk before settling down on top of my bed. What else would one call everything I'd been doing ever since I came to live in the Lin house?

"Yeah, for little things like _shaving_," Jiao snapped while she helped me out of my jacket with more force than was really necessary, "not for anything important."

She watched in silence as I removed my shoes on my own and went to get my pajamas. I didn't know if I was supposed to be apologizing more, or attempting to calm her down in some way, or what. It wasn't as though I'd meant to go missing. But I was always doing thoughtless things, it seemed. I'd been living my entire life up until then simply doing whatever my father ordered, and whatever I wanted the rest of the time. No one had complained about my solitary actions before. Just another thing I had to work on…

"Zian?" Jiao called hesitantly.

"Yes?" I answered, pulling open my dresser drawer to remove the needed clothing.

"You really won't do it again, will you?" she slowly asked, anxiety dousing the anger in her voice. "We were all so worried, looking all over the place, and no one had even seen you leave or anything. Even Delun-dàgē was getting worked up when you didn't answer your phone."

Sighing slightly, I yanked my sweater over my head and replaced it with a t-shirt. "I hadn't known I was so important to him. He's always so critical."

Jiao hummed thoughtfully for a moment. "He can get that way with everyone, really. It's just how he is. But underneath his roughness, he's really a sweet person with a lot of focus on his responsibilities," she explained quietly, slowly coming to stand behind my crouched form. I didn't answer, and simply stared at a spot on the floor while she continued, "You know, when you and I first met, he was so worried that I wouldn't need him anymore after I had you. He really likes being depended on, and when you appeared… He said he felt as though you were trying to take his place," she ended, sounding somewhat amused.

"That's not what I'm doing," I said softly.

"I know," she agreed, hugging me from behind. The warmth of her body gave my continued shaking a slight relief. "And he will, too, eventually. Maybe. Just don't take his huffiness to heart, okay?"

"I never have," I answered, smirking somewhat. Standing up, I turned to face her, and slowly drew her against my chest, resting my cheek on the top of her head. Closing my eyes for a moment, I said, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," she murmured, hugging me in return as tightly as she dared. Then she let me go and hurried from the room, closing the door softly behind herself.

Quickly changing into my pajama pants, I threw my clothing into the basket on the floor, brushed my teeth, and slipped into bed, sighing while I stared up at the ceiling. I rubbed my cheek for a moment. It was still warm from where it had been touching Jiao's soft hair.

Smiling, I closed my eyes, but then jumped slightly when my door suddenly opened again. Staring guardedly into the darkness, my breath caught in my throat when I saw Jiao shut and lock the door behind herself before running to my bed and jumping on top. My eyes widened when she crawled under my blankets and fitted herself around me, sighing against my shoulder while she closed her eyes.

"T-this… um…" I paused and gulped. How was I supposed to sleep like this? Forget sleeping, how was I supposed to _breathe_?

"You're still freezing cold. I'll warm you up," she offered, patting a hand on top of my stomach. There was no need for that anymore. My entire body felt as though it was suddenly on fire.

Briefly staring down at the top of her head, I immediately looked away again. This was incredibly painful. She apparently had no idea what sort of torment I was going through at that very moment when she let out another breathy sigh against my ear.

"I really… don't think this is… a-a good idea…" I said through gritted teeth, torn between an urge to run from the room and various other urges, which were quickly overpowering the want to flee. The willpower to beat down said urges was quickly slipping away. This was bad. Didn't she have any caution against me? Broken arm or not, it wasn't as though I was a cripple who couldn't move.

"No worries," she airily replied, abruptly cramming my Second Life helmet down over my eyes and slipping on her own.

Oh, thank God. I'd been spared.

Then again, I wasn't sure if I wanted to feel disappointed or happy.

"Goodnight," she said, smiling mischievously when she suddenly deeply kissed me, slowly running up a hand across my cheek. I immediately fell asleep when her trailing fingers reached the button to turn on the game, the chaotic battle still raging through my mind.


	30. Finding Purpose

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note – **Everyone seems to be gaining some sort of weird nickname or another…_

* * *

_"What are you doing here?" Avila asked, looking torn between happiness and awe while she stared up at Prince._

_He smiled an extremely sparkly smile, and went back to looking about himself. "I got sent out to find people to help manage our land, and the guy I'm looking for is in Moon City." He paused and turned back to us. "Oh! Hey, do you guys want to, too?"_

_"Want to what?" I inquired blankly, not particularly wanting to go search for someone._

_"Manage the land with us, I mean," he explained, an expectant look on his face, and quickly added, "I bet Gui would want you there," with a knowing nod._

_"Thank you for the invitation," Jiū said politely. "We'll think about it."_

_"Need any help looking for whoever you're looking for?" Wei Bo asked when Prince began to search about the area again._

_"Oh, no. That's fine. Thanks, though," Prince answered with a wave while he hurried off down the road. "See you later!"_

Several days after spontaneously stumbling across Prince in Moon City, we'd arrived at the area to which he'd directed us. I critically ran my eyes over the area and wondered if we had come to the correct place. There was a tower, a few scattered buildings dotting the area, a wall-in-the-making, and a great deal of, well, absolutely nothing. Lots of grassy hills and patches of trees, if that counted as something, anyway. When Ugly Wolf had invited us to visit their new city, I'd been assuming it was really a city, not someplace where a city was going to be.

After walking for several more minutes, my team and I stepped through the front gate set in the thick wall surrounding the tower. I glanced around for a moment. The area inside the wall did seem to be a bit bigger than it had looked on the outside, so maybe it wasn't completely underdeveloped to begin with.

"What the heck are they doing?" Wei Bo muttered, raising an eyebrow at the large crowd of arguing people standing before us. It seemed that everyone else Prince invited had beat us there. He'd certainly managed to get quite a number of teams. Aside from the lack of buildings, the city was already quite full. Then again, with as small as the "city" was, that wasn't saying very much.

"They're fighting," Dib answered with a smirk, blue eyes wandering curiously around the area. "Obviously."

Wei Bo punched the top of Dib's head and strode away, red cape billowing out behind him. "That was a rhetorical question!" he snapped, crossing his arms angrily. Inwardly sighing at the perpetual conflict, I followed after him, trying to ignore Dib's indignant and somewhat tearful demands for revenge while he pulled on my bracer. He was stronger than I was, why couldn't he retaliate by himself? Or not at all?

Wandering around the edge of the mess of players and horses, we finally came to a halt beside Ugly Wolf. No one seemed to notice we had arrived. I was somewhat thankful they hadn't. It gave me time to remember all of their names.

I watched while a group of people nearby continued to scream at one another. Gui detached himself from the fight a moment later, yelling loudly over his shoulder about something or another and stomping in our direction with a furious look on his face. "Why'd Prince invite _those_ people?" he snarled up at the tall beastman when he came to a halt in front of us. "They…" He paused, looked at me in bewilderment, and then proceeded to make an extremely loud noise of surprise.

Ugly Wolf turned to see what Gui was looking at, and jumped slightly. "Since when have you guys been there?" he asked in a somewhat startled tone. Were we really so sneaky? It wasn't like we'd been very quiet. Dib and Wei Bo had been annoyingly throwing insults back and forth the whole time. Then again, that fight Gui had been participating in with those other three people had been very loud, and probably drowned out the mutterings of my teammates.

"Oh, hello!" Yu Lian called, smiling politely.

"Hello," I said, returning her smile while the others waved and greeted them as well.

Doll hurried forward and latched herself onto my right arm. Dib immediately re-grabbed my other, glancing at the young girl with a pouty expression. "Aeolus!" she said brightly, smiling upward while she whacked my shoulder guard with the top of her necromancer's staff, not seeming to notice the dirty looks Dib was shooting in her direction.

"Hello, Doll," I greeted, giving her a brief pat on the head. Hoping the two teeny players would soon let me go, I straightened and looked expectantly at the unknown—I couldn't recall seeing him before, though that probably didn't mean anything—warrior who was staring at me from several feet away.

"Who is this?" he asked, glancing briefly at the others before returning his gaze to my team and I, a slightly confused look on his face. I felt relieved at his question, which meant I had indeed not forgotten him.

"My younger brother, Zian—I mean, Aeolus, and his team," Gui informed, waving a hand at me. "Guys, this is Nan Gong Zui."

Rather than greeting the man, I focused all my energy on holding myself back from beaming with immense happiness when I heard Gui's words. He'd actually voluntarily admitted to being my brother, and didn't even look disgusted at the thought.

Jiū glanced up at me, a small smile on her face, but it immediately disappeared when she looked in perplexity at my squinty-eyed stare—my efforts at keeping my face straight. **"What are you doing?"**

Attempting to rearrange my face into a mask of neutrality, I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. **"Nothing…"**

Gui curiously ran his eyes over my team. "Did you guys finally register?"

Everyone fell silent and Wei Bo gave him a very dark glower for asking. I braced myself in preparation and felt the other four do the same when Wei Bo took a deep breath. That topic had become taboo around him, and bringing it up usually resulted in him throwing some sort of tantrum, which mostly involved yelling at me about how it was all my fault for suggesting "such a stupid name in the first place".

"Yes, we registered just before we returned to Moon City," Jiū said faintly, giving a cautious look to Wei Bo before smiling in a twitchy manner and chuckling.

"We're the Socks!" Dib declared loudly, swinging himself back and forth off my leg and sounding as though he was extremely proud of the name he'd forced on everyone. He smiled widely and punched my hip. "Al came up with it!"

"I did not," I snapped and pointed at Wei Bo. The dumbstruck stares worn by everyone who'd heard Dib's announcement shifted from me to him. "It was Huffy and his constant disputatious attitude twisting my words around into weird things!"

"Shut up, Twig!" he retorted heatedly, pushing my hand away and glaring. "If you hadn't come up with such a stupid name in the first place, it never would have happened!"

"You were the one coming up with stupid names!" I yelled at his repetitive phrases, and smacked the top of Dib's head.

"Ouch!"

"And he's the one who registered the team without asking us first, so stop blaming me!" I ended, trying to take my hand away from Dib when he angrily pinched my palm in revenge for hitting him.

"Please, stop fighting!" Xiu Chen glanced between us worriedly. "Dear, please–"

"Why do you always take _his_ side?" Wei Bo fumed before stomping off, Xiu Chen at his heels attempting to calm him down. Jiū took Avila's hand and ran off to follow them. I let them go by themselves, not wanting to rile up Wei Bo any further. How was it possible for a group of people to fight so much? We were perfectly civil whenever we had to be, which only seemed to be when we were training and teamwork was crucial, but the rest of the time it was like every little word sparked a new argument to life.

Sighing, I turned to look back at the others, several of whom seeming as though they were trying not to laugh. Doll, apparently thinking the argument was now over, tugged on my right hand. "Pick me up!" she ordered excitedly.

Dib gasped and started tugging on my left hand with a very determined expression as if gaining my attention was some sort of contest. "No! Pick _me_ up!"

"No, me!" Doll yelled, yanking on my arm with all of her strength.

"Al, pick me up!" Dib firmly commanded, pulling me in the other direction.

"I ASKED FIRST! AND HE'S MY SERVANT!"

"SO WHAT? HE'S MY BEST FRIEND!"

Glancing down at them, I rolled my eyes at their antics and crouched on the ground, picking one up on each arm in a hope that they would be pacified, and that they would stop attempting to rip me in half. They shot angry looks at one another when I stood up again. Why was I continually surrounded with angry people…?

Lolidragon smirked and laughed behind one hand for a moment. "You're such a push-over," she remarked. I ignored her, not particularly feeling like I agreed or disagreed. Anyway, she seemed like the kind of person who would bother me more if I responded, so I stayed resolutely silent and avoided looking at her.

Yu Lian cleared her throat, shot a concerned look in the direction the other four of my teammates had run in, and then smiled brightly to the people standing nearby. "Well, if you all would please follow us into the hall, we'll discuss and organize the available city positions."

At her call, everyone obediently hurried forward to file into the tower. I swept a curious look over the large number of riderless horses now milling about the area, and wondered if they should have been tethered somewhere. Not that there was a spot for tethering a bazillion NPC horses.

But I didn't have long to stare before Doll yanked on my quiver strap, urging me forward to join the others inside. No one else seemed to be concerned about the horses wandering off, so I decided not to bother myself with it, either.

Gui fell into step beside me and gave me a worried glance. "I'm sorry for earlier, I didn't know Wei Bo would get so angry," he said quietly, still looking a bit bewildered over the team name whole ordeal.

"It's fine," I brushed his worry off and shrugged slightly while we walked into the spacious hall. "He gets angry all the time, usually about pointless things. I'm sure he'll be his normal, slightly-less-irritable self again soon, once the other three calm him down."

While we picked our way toward where Ugly Wolf and Yu Lian were standing, Gui hummed for a moment and smiled in amusement. "Well, I can't really blame him for getting angry over being named the Socks," he commented, sending a small look to Dib, who pretended he didn't notice the attention and instead stared with excitement about the crowded room. Gui's thoughts were definitely mutual. While it was true I'd said I hadn't cared very much what we should have named ourselves, "the Socks" was pushing it.

I seated myself on the floor, out of the way of everyone else, while Ugly Wolf and Yu Lian began organizing the players into different city management sections. Doll hopped to her feet, gave Dib one more frown, and skipped off to stand beside her teammates, leaving a triumphant-looking Dib to monopolize my lap.

**"Are you guys going to join us in here, or stay outside? The Odd Squad is distributing positions in city management,"** I called to the other four over the team channel, wondering how long it would take for Wei Bo to compose himself. I didn't particularly want to have some position or another in the city, but I also didn't want to speak for the others in a flat out refusal without a team discussion. We already had more than our share of communication issues without adding more.

After a quick smattering of agreeable messages, the other four eventually came inside and settled down beside me. Yu Lian spun about on her heel, looking very business-like, and gazed down at us while her husband continued to sort through the others. "Were you six also planning on joining Infinite City's management?" she asked promptly.

"We haven't talked about it very much," I admitted after a moment. "But, if you need us, yes, we'll help wherever we can."

She nodded, looking pleased at my response. "I'm sure we can use you somewhere. Even with all of the people Prince managed to round up, we'll still be in need of everyone we can get since the city will, of course, not be this small for long. Any preferences on where you'd like to be placed?"

"What sorts of choices do we have?" Xiu Chen inquired.

"Well, there's the military, and that can be narrowed down further into people such as guards, or reserve troops in case they're needed, or city defenses, and there's the city construction and design, and lots of public relations related jobs," she listed off, and then paused and took a deep breath before continuing, "There's also quite a few little odds and ends jobs, such as helping with the city budget, or things like keeping records of the citizens, or making supplies—potions, weapons, armor, et cetera. Or there is the option of waiting until we have the city up and running so you could open some sort of a shop."

Feeling extremely overwhelmed, I attempted to run over the choices in my mind. I didn't want to be in the military, nor did I have any knowledge about architecture, and I definitely didn't want a job that had to do with socializing in any way, shape, or form.

"Military, here!" Dib chirped from my lap, waving his hand in the air. "Preferably in the reserve forces!"

"Avila and I, too," Wei Bo added. Yu Lian nodded at them and made a small note on the clipboard she was carrying in one hand.

"May I be placed in city defenses?" Jiū asked, "The majority of my spells are more useful for defensive purposes and confusion tactics than the straight-on offensive spells many other magicians use."

"Of course," Yu Lian answered, writing down something else and then looking up with a smile. "However, your illusionary and enchanting spells will be helpful when it comes to military uses as well as every-day defenses. Are you willing to help defend during a battle if you're needed?"

"Oh, yes," Jiū agreed.

"I'm not really sure which I should pick," Xiu Chen said hesitantly. "Is there a priest section in the military, or something of that sort?"

"Yes," Yu Lian confirmed. "That's also one of my husband's placements. You'll be in the reserve troops, but not the ones who fight. Your responsibilities will be the same as they are for your team, only more wide-spread, since you'll be required to help many more players than you do already. Is that your choice, then?"

Xiu Chen nodded hurriedly. "That sounds fine."

Yu Lian expectantly turned to me, pen at the ready to write whatever I'd chosen. Not that I'd chosen anything yet.

"I don't know," I blurted out, growing to be somewhat panicky under her intense stare.

"We have a section in the military for–"

"I don't want to kill people," I interrupted, knowing what she was going to say. "And I don't want to be around them, either."

She raised an eyebrow and nodded faintly while Dib started laughing at what I'd said. I knew it had been rude, but I preferred getting people temporarily annoyed at me than to have myself placed somewhere I didn't want to be.

"Well, what sorts of productive things would you be willing to do around the city?" she asked.

"Put him in with the Odds and Ends," Dib decided for me, "supply production. He often makes his own stuff, rather than buying it all, and he's really good at it."

"Ah," Yu Lian sighed, making one last note and lowering her clipboard, though I hadn't agreed. Not that I cared. It sounded like a good idea, when compared with the other choices.

"Thank you for your support," she said with a bright smile. "Further instructions will be given to you after everyone has been assigned their tasks. Be sure to work hard!"

At our scattered responses, she hurried back to Ugly Wolf's side and began talking to him. Sighing deeply, I leaned back against the cold stone wall. On the one hand, having responsibilities in-game other than training seemed like it was going to be endlessly irritating and inconvenient. Plus this meant I'd be spending most likely a great deal less time with Jiū.

However, I felt pleased that I'd found a use for myself. Or, Dib had, anyway. I'd been extremely idle the past month. Having duties again sounded rather appealing, really. I just hoped I'd be able to live up to whatever expectations they had of me.

I'd been enough of a disappointment to those around me already.


	31. Blazing Anxiety

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note – **I had quite a bit of fun writing the first part of this. xD In chapter 25 of the manhua, they're all laying on piles of straw in that building (I guess they had no furniture yet.) I'm surprised Yu Lian let them laze about like that, with as much work as there was to be done on the city._

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I slowly scraped my knife across the nearly-finished arrow shaft in my hand, watching silently while the members of the Odd Squad grumbled in low tones at one another nearby. They'd been doing that quite a lot over the past two weeks. According to Wicked, Prince had somehow managed to "accidentally" travel to the Eastern Continent. However one went about accidentally walking to the port, accidentally handing the sailor NPC five thousand crystal coins, and accidentally boarding the ship, I had no idea.

I wasn't really sure as to why everyone seemed to be so surprised it had happened, really. Then again, I also wasn't sure as to why they'd let Prince wander around by himself in the first place. He was always getting lost. How was this any different, aside from the distance involved? It wasn't like he was never coming back. But the rest of the team was extremely worried—in Yu Lian's case; extremely angry—regardless of how I felt as though it wasn't really anything to get panicky over.

Gui was the panickiest, by far. I hadn't known it was a possible feat, but he was starting to act even more insane than before; I couldn't begin to count the times he'd spontaneously burst into tears, dashing here and there, yelling at the top of his lungs.

He was like a man-sized version of Meatbun.

With some difficulty, I kept my patience over his annoying behavior. After all, if one of my teammates disappeared, I supposed I would also be very worried. More so if they'd managed to trap themselves on a different continent. More, more so if I was in love with the person. Though I doubted I'd run around screaming my head off, whatever was happening. That wouldn't accomplish anything, other than give me a sore throat. And probably a lot of other sore things, because I was certain my other teammates would stop me in violent ways.

Patience or not, becoming more and more alluring whenever Gui's fretting began was the idea of taking an arrow, and sticking it up his–

"Al!" Dib called, waving a tiny fist in my face. I leaned backward slightly to avoid getting hit, and he opened his hand, revealing a new arrow head he'd just finished making out of the bone of some monster.

"Oh, thank you," I said, taking it from his palm and attaching it to the arrow shaft I'd been holding. The three warriors on my team—plus Xiu Chen—being reserve troops, and having nothing else to do—had volunteered to help me make arrows. Though disappointed that Jiū was too busy to be there, I'd been immensely relieved by their offer, because Yu Lian had given me an enormous scroll of parchment with a list of things I was supposed to make.

Five hundred arrows being at the top.

Yu Lian had always seemed so nice, polite and lady-like. Now all I could see her as was a slave driver. Really, how did she expect me to fletch five hundred arrows all by myself? Wasn't there anyone else in the supply production department, aside from me? Then again, maybe this particular situation was why there wasn't.

Perhaps she was dealing with my solitary attitude in what she thought was a considerate manner, but there was a big difference between working by myself and being the only one working.

Carefully attaching little crow feathers to the other end of the arrow, I frowned when Gui suddenly jumped up from his seat in a pile of straw and promptly began running around again. Who the hell set him off _this_ time? They needed to go die, whoever they were.

Glancing down at the finished arrow in my hand, I had a small idea as to how I could distract him. Or maybe I just wanted to be annoying. I'd been meaning to test something out, anyway. It seemed like a good moment to do so.

Quickly unfolding myself and standing, I let a tiny amount of my mana points flow through my gold ring, into the arrow. Picking up my longbow off the floor, I strode over to where Gui was racing in circles, screaming that he wanted Prince. When he saw me approaching, he froze, one leg sticking up in the air and bits of straw drifting downward around him.

"Gui Wen," I called, attempting to keep my face straight when I stopped in front of him. He was so weird.

"What?" He quickly put his leg back down, looking slightly embarrassed as though he hadn't noticed until just now that I was there, watching him be a moron.

I held out my bow and the charged arrow. "Would you fire this arrow at that barrel over there, please?" I asked, pointing a finger at the empty barrel set in the corner of the spacious room. He looked a bit confused at the strange request, but took the objects from my hands and nodded. I gave him a smile and quickly covered my ears. My teammates immediately did the same, amused expressions on their faces when they realized what I was doing.

His bewildered stare deepened at our actions. "…What are you guys doing that for?"

"Hurry and shoot it," I ordered at his muffled words. He stood still a moment longer, but shrugged and drew the arrow back, aiming for the barrel. I took several steps backward while he steadied his hand. My eyes shut on reflex when a flash of lightening burst from his fingertips. The poor barrel exploded and caught on fire, pieces of splintered wood flying in all directions while thunder boomed through the air. Everyone, except for my team, screamed at the unexpected occurrence. Though it had been a much smaller bolt of lightening than when I'd done it—on that occasion, I'd used all of my mana points, rather than only a few—it was still quite startling.

I was pleased to see my little test had worked. I'd been wondering, ever since I'd started fletching for Yu Lian, whether or not the magic would take effect for other people as well as I. And, other than answering my musings, I had successfully stopped Gui's irritating romp.

When I finally uncovered my ears, Gui turned toward me with a furious, or maybe terrified look smothering his pale face. "YOU KNEW THAT WOULD HAPPEN, DIDN'T YOU?" he yelled, whether out of anger or not being able to hear anything, I didn't know.

"No," I answered halfway truthfully and snatched my bow away from him before he could break it or something. "But now I do. Thank you for your help!" I turned to hurry back to my team, but Gui grabbed my shoulder before I could get far.

Taking my right hand in his, he glared down at the ring. "It was this ring, wasn't it?" he demanded and forcefully tried to remove it from my finger. "I'm confiscating it!"

"Stop that!" I snapped, yanking my hand out of his clutches and retreating several steps backward. "It's mine! You're the one who told Dib to give it to me, you can't take it back now!"

"I didn't make the suggestion so you could do something like that!" He started chasing after me when I ran away toward the Odd Squad and attempted to hide behind Ugly Wolf, since he was the biggest person in the room. "GIVE IT!"

"No!"

"I SAID GIVE IT!" he yelled, reaching around the wolf to try to get at me.

"AND I SAID—OW!"

Ugly Wolf suddenly grabbed us by the arms and dragged us apart, looking extremely irritated at getting involved in the argument. "Both of you, shut up. You're acting like lunatics, and… and…" His eyes widened in fear while he stared over our heads, across the room.

I glanced behind myself to see what he was looking at, and my mouth dropped open in horror while I watched large, crackling flames leap into the air from where a piece of the on-fire barrel had landed in a pile of straw on the floor.

The members of Dark Phantom, who'd been sitting where the fire was now roaring, were standing several yards away from their initial seats, glancing between the fire and the Odd Squad in an unsure manner as if they didn't know what to do about the situation.

"Look at what you did!" I accused, frowning in admonishment at Gui.

"Wh-What?" His face twisted with rage while he waved around his free arm in a futile attempt to hit me. "YOU DID IT, ZIAN! I DIDN'T–"

"SHUT _UP_!" Yu Lian screamed, clobbering us both several times with her magician's staff. "We have enough problems around here already without you two adding more! Murder each other later, and help put out the fire first, you idiots!"

Rubbing the spot where she'd hit me, I stared at the fire, and then gave Yu Lian a brief, reluctant look. "Can't we just let it burn itself out? This building is made of stone, after all. It's not like it's going to burn down."

At that moment, a flaming piece of straw flew on a draft through the air, snagging the gaze of everyone in the room. It landed in another pile of straw, which promptly caught fire.

"Or not," I muttered.

Doll jumped up from her seat, and raised her staff. "I'll get water!" she declared, summoning several flaming skeletons as if she thought they would be of help carrying the buckets. She screamed in shock when the straw around her feet was immediately set ablaze. Ugly Wolf quickly let go of Gui and I to grab her instead, and dragged her safely away from the fire threatening to surround the little girl.

Why in the world hadn't she summoned normal skeletons? It wasn't as though they would burn up just because they weren't also spouting flames.

"PUT THOSE AWAY!" Yu Lian shrieked, looking positively livid over the flow of events. Doll obediently got rid of the skeletons before they could spread the fire any further than it was already spreading. The whole time, Lolidragon had simply been standing to one side, laughing hysterically instead of doing something to help.

Yu Lian quickly organized all three teams into a line from the fire to a well outside, and bucket after bucket of water was passed along, dousing the flames at last and leaving the spacious hall full of smoke and soggy, scorched straw. Yu Lian then threw my quiver at me, shoved Gui and I out the door and angrily slammed it shut behind us.

"IT WAS BAD ENOUGH WITH _ONE_ GUI, NOW THERE'S _TWO_!" her furious yell rang out from the other side of the door, and then there was silence from within.

Gui stared at the door for a long moment, looking somewhat offended, and then glared at me. "Nice going," he snapped, whirling around and stomping off toward the city gates. Sighing slightly, I followed after him at a safe distance as he strode away without looking back. Rather than feeling guilty over what I'd done, I was actually relieved. This way, I got to walk around outside, rather than sitting still, fletching for hours and hours on end.

Well, I supposed I did feel a little guilty. For the fire, at least. Not so much about the rest.

Pulling my quiver over my head, I tugged it into place and stuffed my bow into the top before hurrying forward to walk beside Gui while we left the city through the half-constructed southern gate. Gui glanced at me, looking a bit annoyed that I was still there, but didn't say anything. It wasn't until we'd walked nearly a mile down the wide, dirt path that he slowed his steps and seemed to relax.

"H-how are you doing?" he asked quietly, staring off at the hazy horizon while he scratched at his pointy ear for a moment. "Your injuries, I mean."

"They're healing nicely. I'm getting my arm's cast removed in a couple weeks," I answered, "and I haven't been forgetting things as often. Remembering quite a bit, too. I think."

A perturbed look flashed across his face. "I hadn't known they were so extensive… No wonder Dib was so angry with me. That must have been quite the fall to have given you amnesia."

"From the top of the front stairs, to the bottom," I muttered with a sigh, and he grimaced. "Bounced a few times on the way down, too… But I'm doing a lot better, anyway."

"That's good to hear," he said slowly, and fell into a strained silence.

"And how are you?" I inquired after a moment and watched in concern as his face darkened further at the question.

"I've been better," he replied, shrugging slightly. "Just really anxious about Prince, and the city… and other, um, things." He fell silent again, staring miserably off into space. My mind reeled while I attempted to think up something comforting to say to make the misery dissipate, though I doubted that anything but Prince's return could accomplish that. Though, ever since Gui and I had been reunited, I'd wondered if he really did love the elf or if he'd just been acting ridiculously for the hell of it. Whatever the "it" was. Amusement? Boredom?

But, when I watched him walk along in such a lonely manner, I knew that definitely wasn't the case.

For lack of anything especially bright and cheery to say, I rested a hand on his shoulder and gently squeezed. "I'm sure he'll come back soon," I assured, hoping my weak effort would at least help lighten his mood, even if a little.

Gui shrugged slightly at my words, and then let his shoulders droop. "It'd probably be a bit easier to deal with if that bastard, Wicked, would stop giving me superior looks every chance he gets," he grumbled, anger seeping into his sad expression. "He thinks he's got such a great advantage over me just because he knows Prince in real life, and I don't."

I stared in surprise at his jealous fuming, and looked away again. "H-have you ever… well, asked Prince if–"

"Yes," he interrupted darkly. Even his feet began to drag as he walked along, looking utterly depressed. "He doesn't want me to know."

"Oh," I said faintly, inwardly punching myself when I realized I'd just made things far worse. I hadn't known he was shouldering so much. With as happy as he seemed—or _had_ seemed, anyway—I'd never really thought that anything was bothering him. After all, he'd gotten to spend a lot of time with Prince in-game, if not out of it, every night. But I supposed that if Jiū and I were in the same sort of situation, especially with some other person who was interested in her hanging around, I'd feel rather miserable, too.

Gui sighed deeply one last time and straightened himself up. "Well, I don't think Yu Lian threw us out just so we could walk around and chat," he commented, smiling slightly and speeding up his pace while he hurried toward a wooded area. "You guys were running out of feathers. Let's kill some crows before we go back so she doesn't yell at us for being lazy."

Smirking, I nodded and ran after him while he pulled out his guqin in preparation to fight. I drew my own bow out of my quiver, wishing I could make his cheerful demeanor more than just an act.

Pulling out my wings, I leapt into the air and quickly flew toward the treetops where I could see quite a few black birds swooping around, several of which were only slightly smaller than I was. This was going to be interesting, fighting these without the help of my team. I'd trained just fine on my own when I first started playing, but that was only because I'd picked mobs that couldn't easily retaliate. However, since crows had _wings_ and all…

At least they were big enough that we would only need to kill a small amount before we would have enough feathers for fletching quite a few more arrows.

Halting myself at the edge of the tree line, I glanced behind myself and watched while Gui hurried after me on foot. **"Once you get positioned in a tree or wherever, shoot at one to lure it downward."**

Gui gave me a brief look of annoyance and came to a halt before he could reach the forest. **"Are you planning on using me as bait?"**

**"****We're both going to be the bait,"** I corrected. **"If we pull one at a time, I'll shoot from above while you shoot from below, confusing it."**

**"****But I'm way weaker than you are! What if it decides to chase after me instead of you?"** he challenged indignantly.

I snorted and waved my bow at him. **"After you let Prince beat you up so much, you're seriously going to worry about getting hurt by a crow?"**

**"****Be quiet! That's different!"** he snapped, stomping a foot and looking embarrassed.

Sighing, I frowned down at him. **"If you get attacked, I'll come rescue you or something. Now stop whining, and just shoot one."**

With a roll of his eyes, he finally disappeared into the trees and I waited, watching the crows soar about. After a few minutes, one of his translucent arrows streaked through the air and planted itself into the wing of one of the crows. Drawing back my own bow, I shot at the bird when it swooped downward to attack Gui. Like I was hoping, the crow then changed its focus to me instead, cawing angrily and flying toward me.

I lifted myself higher into the air, positioning myself over where Gui's arrow had come from. Before the crow could reach me, another shiny arrow shot up from the top of one of the trees and stabbed through the crow's wing again. It gave an irritated squawk when I shot two arrows, one in each wing joint. When it began to lose altitude, several more arrows came from below, stabbing into its stomach.

Falling toward it, I landed on its back, grabbing it around the neck. It attempted to roll over and unseat me, furiously flapping its wings and twisting this way and that, but I kept myself aloft. With another curious wondering, I pressed my right hand to its head and let some of my mana seep into my ring, sending an electrical shock into the crow's skull.

The bird's body gave a violent shudder and then went limp, falling toward the trees. I let go and slowly lowered myself down after it while it crashed through the leafy crowns below. There was a yell of surprise from the tree and I sped myself up, wondering what Gui was doing down there.

I landed beside him on his branch and he angrily waved his guqin at me. "Why'd you drop the bird on me?" he demanded, pulling several feathers out of his messy hair. Seeing that he was uninjured, I ignored his indignation at getting clobbered with a stunned crow—it wasn't like I'd _aimed_ the bird at him—and instead jumped off the bough, falling to the ground to inspect the twitching monster.

When it shakily began to stand up, I pulled out my knife and quickly cut its head off. A loud thud from behind told me that Gui finally descended the tree, and he knelt down beside me a moment later while I carefully began to pluck out the crow's feathers, stuffing them all into a cloth bag.

Gui gave me a blank stare before helping remove the feathers. "I don't know which one is more strange," he mused, pausing in his plucking to throw another look in my direction, "how Prince looks so gleeful whenever he kills things, or how you looked completely bored during the whole fight just now."

Raising an eyebrow, I briefly glanced at him. Dib's voice had overlapped his in my mind. How the boy had been so annoyed with how completely unenthusiastic I was that night we were killing boars outside of Star City. It felt like ages ago that it had happened, but I could still see the disappointment on his little face when I was so unresponsive to his continuous efforts at perking me up.

_"You always seem so bored, no matter what we're doing."_

Shaking my head, I returned my focus to the dead crow laying in front of me. "I'm not bored, just very concentrated," I grumbled in reply. "Just because I'm not yelling about how much fun I'm having doesn't mean I'm not enjoying myself."

Gui shrugged slightly. "Well, it's not like I was expecting you to do that, but… I don't know, you just had such an emotionless look the whole time. No excitement, no anger, not even any fear like people would normally have while battling a huge bird a hundred feet in the air. You were so detached from the situation, it was weird," he remarked, watching while I quickly plucked off the last of the crow's tail feathers. He dropped his eyes to his folded hands. "Killing the monster so disinterestedly, it makes me wonder just how used to violence you've gotten while I've been gone."

"I may have to put up with it very often, but that does not mean I am used to it in the slightest," I answered quietly, standing up and tying the bag of feathers to my belt. After a moment, I smirked slightly down at the crow's corpse. "As you said, I suppose I'm detached from it all. But is not caring about what I'm doing worse than enjoying it, then? Is it really so odd? Even comparable? It's just a crow, I don't know why I would be emotional in any way about any aspect of killing it."

With a noncommittal shrug, Gui stood up and brushed his purple robes off, frowning at me before walking off to his tree again. "You sure have changed a lot."

I silently watched while he climbed the thick tree, my gaze falling to the leafy ground once he was nearly out of sight. I certainly had changed over the years. The child I used to be, the one who had happily spent so much time laughing and playing with Gui in the past, he was barely there anymore. My father had made sure of that.

But, I mentally added while I lifted myself into the air, just because the cheery boy I used to be was rarely present didn't mean he was completely erased. My usual blank self smothered him for the most part, but he did emerge every once and a while, increasingly so since I met Dib. Perhaps it was the fact that Dib himself was so immature, but he certainly was able to easily draw out my own childish and playful side.

However, I supposed that someday I'd be able to mesh together the broken pieces of my personality, rather than being two people; the heir to my father's company, and the rest of me that I'd suppressed for so long.

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_This chapter marks the point at which Clockwork has passed 100,000 words. *cries* I never would have imagined that I'd get so far with one story alone. Thanks a ton, everyone, for all of your supportive comments and views :D Knowing that other people enjoy my work as much as I do (more or less, lol) makes me very happy._


	32. His Farewell

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

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_I looked down in mild surprise when Jiao held out a small envelope. Silver, elegantly-scripted lines spelling out Gui Wen's name were embossed across the front. "Since he was reluctant to tell you his address," she explained quietly, "and because you've been so antsy lately, this gives you a reason to get out of the house for a while."_

_Slowly taking the envelope, I nodded slightly. "Right."_

_"I wish I could go, too," she continued somewhat longingly, and sighed. "You'll probably have trouble toting your luggage around by yourself."_

_"Well, it can't really be helped, since you have classes," I murmured, shrugging, though I also felt quite a bit disappointed. "I'll only be taking a small bag, though. I could just ask Heng to come with me, I suppose. Except he'll probably have work."_

_Jiao froze for a moment as I spoke, face blank. She gave a hesitant smile afterward. "Yes, he would be… a good person to ask."_

_She suddenly turned away and hurried out of the room. "Be back in a moment, I'm going to get the phone."_

_"Wait, I have my…" I called after her, but she didn't seem to hear. "Cellphone."_

I felt as though I was dealing with Heng's secrecy all over again. One moment Jiao was being completely honest with me, at times to the point of being harsh with what she said, and the next she was brushing off her strange behavior and telling me nothing was wrong. What in the world was the matter with those two, telling me to be more honest and thoughtful while they kept important things to themselves? What happened to "you need to rely on me more"? Did this mean that she didn't see me as being reliable enough to confide in?

Their backward actions made me so frustrated.

And the fact that Jiao had been avoiding me all day _really_ wasn't helping. Or maybe I was over-thinking things and she had simply been busy. But Heng and my flight to T City was scheduled in two and a half hours, so I didn't have any time to properly speak to her beforehand. I was definitely going to have a long sit-down with her once I got home from visiting Gui Wen.

Cautiously slipping my left arm into the bottom of a t-shirt, I managed to pull it upward, only to get it stuck on the fat cast. Tugging harder, I glared at the stubborn fabric gripped in my hand. Several minutes later, it finally gave way, and obediently came to a halt on my shoulder. I quickly lifted the shirt to pull it over my head, mentally telling myself to calm down, for the shirt's sake if not for my temper.

Pausing in my more-than-irritated yanking, I raised an eyebrow in bemusement when I noticed Heng standing in my bedroom doorway, mouth gaping. How long had he been watching?

"I'M SO SORRY!" he yelled, running back around the corner to hide in the hallway. Apparently he hadn't been there very long. That eased my discomfort over his actions, in many different ways.

"I didn't know you were getting naked, so I just opened the door! I'm sorry! I should have knocked! I'm sorry! I–"

"I wasn't undressing," I interrupted, feeling somewhat annoyed at his frantic apologies. There went my efforts at trying to calm down my now-sparking temper.

"Stop screaming, and get in here. I need your help."

"I don't want to!"

"Heng!" I snapped impatiently, continuing my tugging on the t-shirt and finally getting it around my neck. I poked my right arm through the other sleeve and stood up off my bed. It was just a shirt, what in the world was he getting so worked up for? It wasn't like I had no pants on.

"Do you have any idea how long it takes to button up a dress shirt using only one hand—the _wrong_ hand? Get your ass in here, and help me!"

"Get Jiao to help you!" he said, still not moving from his spot.

"She's busy studying, and I'm not going to bother her for something so trivial, especially when you're here already," I explained, picking up my white dress shirt from the bed and walking toward the door. "I'm _clothed_ now, for goodness sake. Please, help me?"

Heng peeked around the door frame, and heaved a heavy sigh. "Geeze, Al," he muttered, frowning while he finally stepped inside, though still averting his eyes in embarrassment. "Are you trying to torture me?" he whined, taking the shirt from my hand and gently easing my left arm into the thin sleeve.

"It's not like this isn't something you see every single day," I grumbled while I helped him tug the shirt over my cast, rolled it back and buttoned it in place, and then slipped my other arm into its sleeve. Damn broken arm. Next week's doctor's appointment, the appointment to finally remove my cast, couldn't come fast enough. Why'd my stupid arm have to break in three spots, instead of one? Or not at all, for that matter? So bothersome.

"It's _not_," Heng countered hotly, shooting me a disbelieving glance. After returning my annoyed stare for nearly a minute, he pulled the shirt straight on my shoulders and crouched down to start buttoning. "It isn't," he murmured. "Dressing myself isn't… at all, you know. Well, I guess you wouldn't."

I silently watched as he carefully buttoned up the shirt, patting away wrinkles as he went. Taking a deep breath, I looked up again and stared at the wall, feeling somewhat uncomfortable now that he'd brought up that particular topic. I supposed I shouldn't have been so pushy, since I would have probably reacted the same way, if not more flustered, if I'd walked in on Jiao getting dressed.

"I do remember, um, _that_. Just so you know. Behave yourself down there," I warned, giving him a suspicious glance when he shakily tucked the ends of my shirt into the top of my pants. I wasn't especially keen on the idea of attempting to fend him off with only one arm, seeing how great my past attempts had gone with two at my disposal.

"What?" he cried, abruptly standing up and leaving my shirt mostly unbuttoned and very disheveled-looking. He glared at me, blushing from ear to ear while I finished the shirt tucking in his place. Pulling on the collar of my shirt, I shook it at him so he'd continue buttoning. "You've… you! You're so…! You jerk! Making me do this when you knew!" he sputtered.

"It comes and goes," I replied, giving up on his help and attempting to finish doing up the tiny white buttons by myself while I strode to the closet. "And I really am not trying to be cruel to you."

"T-that's what makes it worse!" he continued fretfully. "You airhead!"

Slowly opening the closet door, I tiredly glanced at him over my shoulder and walked out of sight. Quickly running my eyes over the selection of calm-colored ties hanging in neat, organized rows on the wall, I awkwardly fumbled with the next button. Never mind buttoning up a shirt, how in the world was I supposed to put on a necktie with one arm? I hadn't worn a full suit since before the accident. Just easy-to-put-on clothing, for the most part, mostly in a want to be able to continue to dress myself.

Stupid Heng. He always seemed completely ready and willing to touch me, so, now that I actually wanted him to be close, why was he being so stubborn? I knew he wouldn't go too far when taking advantage of my tolerance for his constant clinginess, which was why I had asked him in the first place. He did prod the edge of my comfort zone quite often, but I knew he wouldn't cross the line. He was too considerate to do something like that. However, did this mean I was being too light with his feelings again? Taking that consideration of his for granted?

Damned confusing situations.

"Never mind," I finally called. "I'll manage on my own. I'm sorry for bothering you. I'll be ready to leave soon, so go ahead and wait downstairs. Ah, but it would be nice if you could take my suitcase down for me. Although I suppose I can just ask one of–"

"Come back here," he grumbled, stepping into the closet and turning me around again with a sullen expression. Slowly buttoning up the rest of my shirt, he sighed and stared down at my stomach for a very long time. When I was starting to wonder what he was doing, he suddenly pinched my side and sent me a faint, bantering smirk. "You've put on weight."

…Did he just call me fat?

I blankly stared at him for a moment, wondering if I was supposed to be feeling offended, and turned away to pick out a necktie. "Of course I have. People keep stuffing me full of food every day," I huffed. Sometimes I felt as though I'd eaten more in the past month than I had in my entire life. Even with as much as I walked about and exercised every day, I'd managed to become, well, normal-sized?

Heng leaned over me, slipped a dark blue tie off its hook, and looped it around my neck. "I know," he continued slowly and laughed, running his hands around my collar to make it stand up out of the way. "I'm relieved to see you taking better care of yourself, even if it's against your will," he commented, smiling slightly while he neatly knotted the tie around my neck and folded my collar down again.

"Thank you," I said, quickly squeezing past him and walking into the bedroom. Lowering myself onto the edge of the bed, I slipped on my shiny, black dress shoes and stared expectantly up at Heng while he shut the closet door behind himself. An amused grin flashed briefly over his face when I lifted my foot and commandingly shook it at him, loose shoelaces waving through the air.

"So demanding," he muttered with a heavy, long-suffering sigh, obediently tying both of my shoes for me with slow, deliberate movements as if the task was an immense burden.

I inwardly chuckled at the situation while I slipped on my black vest. I waited for him to button it up for me, adjust my tie, and I then stood and went to pick up my suit jacket off of the back of my desk chair. In the past, it had always been Heng tossing about the requests and orders. It was a bit fun to have the tables turned for once. Though I was fairly certain he was going to get revenge for it later in Second Life. I would have to be extra-on-guard against Dib the Furious.

"Al?"

"Hm?" I muttered vaguely while I tugged on my jacket and slipped Gui Wen's wedding invitation into the inner pocket for safe keeping. It would be bad to fly all of the way to T City and discover I'd forgotten the envelope—more specifically, the invitation inside—which was the entire reason I was going in the first place. I'd offered Jiao to just tell Gui Wen the details in-game at some point, but I did have to agree that it was an appealing idea; getting out of the house for a few days. In all of my idleness, even going back to work at my father's company was starting to sound rather inviting.

Heng stepped up behind me and I immediately turned around, balling my right hand into a fist just in case. He looked somewhat amused at my defensive actions. They may have seemed extreme, but I could remember quite well what he'd done the last time he'd stood so close behind me, and I wasn't going to let him take me by surprise a second time. Nor was I going to let him take me in any other state, for that matter.

"May I give you a hug?" he asked, leaning forward slightly until our faces were only a few inches apart.

"No," I answered at once, adding a head shake for reinforcement. I should have called for Jiao, after all, I thought regretfully. Or Delun. Or anyone else. Apparently it had been too naïve of me yet again, trusting that he would hold back when we were alone. He was certainly being daring, seeing as how we were in a house full of people.

"Why not?" he pressed, staring down at me expectantly. Having to look up to meet his eyes always felt so bizarre.

"Because if you get a hug, you'll probably ask for more," I explained flatly, making him frown in disappointment. "It would be best to keep your hands off while you still have hands to keep off. Anyway, you've been taking advantage of the situation and hugging me plenty in-game lately, you sneak."

His face flushed again and he glanced away in a guilty manner, though he stayed at his close proximity. "W-well… they were just kind of on reflex… spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. Anyway," he continued, clearing his throat and giving me a stern look, "that's beside the point."

"It is not," I digressed in agitation. "Did you think that you could get away with doing whatever you wanted just because you assumed I wouldn't be able to remember what happened?"

"No," he answered softly, and smiled. "The opposite, really. I wanted you to remember, so I did it as often as possible. You should have told me to stop if that's what you wanted. Now then, back on topic."

Sighing, I leaned against my desk and narrowed my eyes at him. We hadn't gotten off-topic in the first place. "In case you weren't listening, I already answered."

"Just a little one for behaving myself while helping you dress?" he teased, lifting his arms out to his sides as if he was preparing himself for the hugs to come.

Running out of patience with his pleading and in a want to leave already yet to go to the airport, I hooked my right arm around his neck and roughly pulled him forward. I sure as hell wasn't going to miss my flight just because Heng was annoying me yet again.

He gasped at the apparently unexpected action and froze, bending over me in silence for a long moment. But he let out a whoosh of breath he'd been holding and his arms slowly wrapped around my waist. He hummed contentedly into my shoulder, breathing deeply. "You smell good," he observed.

"That's generally what happens when one bathes regularly," I alluded, rolling my eyes when he started laughing. Was he expecting me to be stinky, with as important as hygiene was to me?

Sighing, he pressed himself against me, tightening his grip and still chuckling off and on. "I really missed you," he admitted quietly after a moment. "…It was so hard to start all over with you again and again. Every time, always wondering how long it would take for you to forget me again. Wondering if you would still remember me the next time I came to visit. Hoping you would stop looking at me like I was a complete stranger…"

Leaning forward, I rested my forehead on his shoulder and nodded wordlessly. I couldn't remember a large portion of what had happened during the early to mid weeks of the past month, but, even without knowing exactly what had happened, I knew it had been rough on not only Heng, but everyone else, including myself.

"Though," he added after a pause, "I'm not sure which one was worse; having you completely forget Dib so you treated me like a random toddler, or having you treat Heng like the employee you used to hate so much."

I shifted slightly to one side so I could stare in bewilderment at the side of his head. "What are you talking about? I never hated you."

"You did too hate me," Heng grumbled. "You always looked so mad at me at the office! If you didn't hate me, then why'd you do that?"

"I looked at everyone like that," I sighed. "And it wasn't anger, it was me forcing myself to be the successor my father wanted. Not only did acting like that every day make me extremely tired, which probably heightened my angry looks, but I also knew that my father would want me always to be very distant with all of you, hence the constant sternness. However, I've never hated you or any of my other employees."

"It was just an act?" he asked hopefully, pressing his forehead to my neck.

"Yes," I replied. "Although, to be honest, I didn't like you, either. I was, well, disinterested I guess. As long as the work got done quickly and correctly, I couldn't have cared less what was going on with all of you."

"You and your damn apathy."

Smiling slightly, I raised my right hand off of his shoulders and soothingly ran it along the back of his head. "Things aren't like that now. Doesn't that count for something?"

"Mm," he murmured vaguely. "I always thought you hated Heng… constantly treating me so coldly. Especially after that one time in your office when I called you 'lively'. What was up with your scary reaction? I thought I was complimenting you, but afterward you looked like you wanted to murder me."

"That was anything but a compliment," I corrected, suddenly remembering how annoyed I was when he'd said that. "In fact, it was probably the worst possible thing you could have ever told me. You should know first-hand how much effort I was putting into keeping Second Life a secret from my father. Hearing you say that, I was so angry with myself for being even a tiny bit transparent."

"Oh. Well, that makes sense." Heng let out a sigh and relaxed against me. "You looked even angrier ever after that, it was scary."

I laughed faintly, shaking my head. "The fact that you looked like you were frightened of me made me confused as well, so I tried to avoid you in a want not to cause problems. But apparently that was the wrong thing to do, hm?"

"It's a vicious loop," he observed humorously. "I stayed away from you to make you calmer, but that made you even more distant, which made me more uneasy, which apparently also made you more uneasy, and on and on.

"I'm glad it's all sorted. Well, _mostly_ sorted. In some ways I'm certainly more at ease now, but… I wish… I wish we could go back to how we were," he continued in a mutter, "when it was just us two." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, turning his head away from me but keeping it at rest on top of my shoulder. "I wonder a lot about what things would be like if we'd never left Sun City in the first place. If I'd listened to you when you said you didn't want to find teammates."

"Aside from finding Gui Wen, I doubt things would be much different than they are," I mused. I still would have been engaged to Jiao. My gaming activities still would have been found out by my father sooner or later. I still would have been sent to live here eventually.

"Maybe not," he conceded in an unwilling manner. "But I still wonder… if I'd done something differently, if… if I'd told you earlier that I love you, if you would have come to love me."

Biting my lip when he whispered the last few words, I hugged him tighter and stared up at the ceiling. I always felt so helpless when I was in some sort of situation where I felt the need to comfort someone. I had no idea what to say to Heng to make him feel better—if there was such a phrase to begin with.

It wasn't like I could tell him I really did love him, since I did, but it wasn't in the way that he wanted. And even if he had told me his feelings earlier than he had, I knew I wouldn't have been able to return them, even if we'd had a lot more time to spend with one another before Jiao had come into my life.

But seeing him going through such misery was horrible, even more so because there was nothing I could do to help. Simply being around him made things worse.

Before I could mentally torment myself any longer, Heng sighed and let me go, smiling down at my worried stare. "I won't bother you with this anymore. No more 'if's' and useless wishful thinking. As _you_ would probably say; it's in the past, so I won't look back at it anymore." He carefully cupped my face in his hands, and suddenly pulled on my cheeks. "And, although that is definitely easier said than done, and I seriously doubt I'll be able to put it behind me just yet… I just want you to be happy."

"But I want you to be happy, too," I grumbled with slight difficulty—it seemed that he was attempting to stretch out my cheeks as far as they could go—inwardly frowning at his suddenly care-free expression, which didn't agree at all with how he'd just been behaving.

Laughing lightly, Heng stepped backward and gently slapped my right shoulder. "Hearing that is enough, Al," he said, smiling widely and picking up my small suitcase off the floor at last. "I _will_ be, anyway. Sometime or another," he added, turning away to stride across the room. I stared after him in annoyance while he disappeared around the door frame, and then followed after, rolling my eyes.

If only erasing feelings was such an easy task.

Heng noisily stomped down the front stairs, letting my suitcase bounce along behind and not giving any regard to the fact that he might be damaging the smooth surface of the steps with his carelessness. He really didn't have to pretend so hard to be energetic and cheerful. His efforts looked incredibly forced in my eyes.

Hurrying along the hall, we paused at the front door. Delun gave us an irritated sigh while he leaned against the wall. "Took you two long enough. Your flight boards in just under two hours, you know. Who knows how crowded the airport will be, and how long it'll take to get through security, and–"

"Sorry!" Heng chirped, interrupting Delun's ranting and patting my back with a playful smile plastered on his face. "Al couldn't decide on a tie to wear, and wouldn't let me help him pick. And then he refused to leave until he'd found a pair of socks to match. Not that anyone will be looking at his socks to make sure the colors don't clash, but whatever. He's just weird like that," he ended in a critical whisper as if I wouldn't be able to hear.

Instead of punching him for the stupid excuse, I nodded in agreement to avoid any further questioning, even if what he'd said was a complete and total lie. Glancing about, I raised an eyebrow. There was a person missing from our send-off group.

"Where's Jiao?"

"She said she's not feeling well," Chen answered quietly. "She won't be coming down."

"Is she okay?" I asked hurriedly. Was that why she'd been so quiet and elusive? She could have said so, though.

"I'm going to go check on her," I decided when no one answered me, turning around to retrace my steps down the long hallway. "Be back in a moment, Heng."

"She said you should just go, and that you shouldn't worry," Mei Rong tossed after me, but I didn't stop. I was going to be gone several days. I didn't want to leave without seeing her first, especially if she was sick. If that was even the case.

Stopping outside her bedroom door a minute later, I lightly knocked. "Jiao? Are you okay?" I called, trying to be loud and quiet at the same time. I didn't want to wake her up if she was resting, but I also wanted to be heard if she was awake. No answer came, and I wondered if it was the former.

"Jiao?" I repeated, a tiny bit louder.

"I'm fine," came her muffled answer at last. Her low, quavering tone only made me feel more worried.

"May I come in?" I asked, putting my hand on the doorknob just in case she agreed. Then again, she'd probably locked it if she didn't want any visitors.

"No," she said quietly, almost too quiet for me to catch. "Just go."

Staring in perplexity at the outside of her door, I stepped a bit closer. "Please, may I come in? I want to see you before I leave."

"You're going to miss your flight if you don't hurry," she replied dismissively. "Have a safe trip."

"Okay…" I said slowly, wondering why she was suddenly being so cold. "Okay, well… I hope you feel better soon. I'll call you tonight, okay? See you in a few days."

Waiting a moment longer for a reply, which I didn't receive, I backed away from the silent doorway and left.

* * *

_'Theme songs' for chapters automatically pop in my head when I'm writing. _

_King of Wishful Thinking by Go West fits spiffily!_

_I'll get over you, I know I will.  
I'll pretend my ship's not sinking.  
And I'll tell myself I'm over you.  
'Cause I'm the king of wishful thinking._


	33. Insightful Perception

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note – **I love picking on Gui. Bwahaha._

* * *

After spending the night in a hotel, Heng and I set out into T City the next morning, determined to track down Gui Wen. We'd had no trouble whatsoever, surprisingly, finding where Gui Wen worked, though we'd never asked him. Even being on good terms with him, I wasn't sure if he would have told us if we had; there was still my father to take into consideration, after all.

But all of the university students hanging about outdoors were more than happy to direct us in the correct direction of the university, and also to his office. And the class he was currently teaching was, according to a random passing student, almost over. So Heng and I decided to ambush him in his office.

"What a mess! Are you sure this is _your_ brother's office?" Heng declared in disbelief, running his eyes over the room, a somewhat horrified expression slipping over his face. I couldn't help but agree.

"Your brother? You—the person who has the bare minimum for everything, and has that bare minimum organized in a clear-cut manner, completely and constantly? And yet…and yet… How the heck does Gui even find anything in here?"

"With difficulty, I suppose," I mused, smiling at the clutter that surrounded us.

Books of all sorts of thicknesses were lining the shelves along every wall, stacked on the floor, and crowded on the top of his desk as well. Though, once I got a better look at the seemingly disordered bookshelf, I noticed there really was a pattern to the arrangements. Rather than being sorted by topic, or listed alphabetically, he'd stuffed them onto the shelves in what I assumed—judging by the the degrees of wear on the books' covers—was least-used books being nearer the door, and frequently-used being nearer his desk. And mostly-used _on_ his desk, along with a large number of gnawed-on-looking highlighters, pens, and pencils. Work papers for himself and from the students were set here and there and all over the place. Colorful sticky notes covered in his cramped, scratchy handwriting were everywhere, adding to the confusion.

Organized chaos.

Perhaps it worked for him, but I would've gone insane if my office had been like that.

Several minutes after I'd seated myself behind his desk—just because his squashy office chair looked comfy, which it was—the door suddenly burst open, and in filed three people. I felt slightly disappointed that it wasn't Gui Wen. At least they were people Heng and I knew. Well, mostly.

"Professor Min!" the girl—the only one in the group I _didn't_ know, naturally—who'd just rushed inside called, hastily throwing a pile of stapled papers onto the desk in front of me. "I need help on part of the essay you assigned last Thursday. I want to expand it a bit in one part around the middle, but I wanted to ask your opinion."

I stared down at the essay for a moment in surprise, and then glanced up at her. She seemed to be extremely interested with something on top of the desk, and was avoiding any looks in my direction. Peering with curiosity over her shoulder were the human versions of Wicked and Wu Qing.

With a conspiratorial smile directed to Heng, I pulled the essay toward myself and cleared my throat. Not that I had any idea what I was supposed to do.

"Did you get a haircut?" the student asked abruptly, staring at the top of my head in bewilderment.

"Yes," I promptly answered. It wasn't like I was lying, I had gotten one at some point. Not recently, though, thus it was an inch or so longer than I usually wore it.

The Wicked Person smirked and shook his head in a fond, yet tired manner. "Xiao Lan, that's–"

"I know, I know," she interrupted, waving a hand at him before he could finish as she flipped open the essay to whatever part she was apparently having difficulty with. "No need to tell me again that we have to hurry, Zhuo-gēge. It'll only be a minute."

He sighed in resignation and turned toward where Heng was sitting in silence by the door, one hand covering his smile and looking like he was extremely amused over what was happening. "Hey, Dib."

"Dib?" Lan repeated, suddenly looking over her shoulder. Her brown eyes widened in shock. I stared at her reaction, wondering if I should be surprised that she knew him, or understanding since it seemed that was how everyone reacted when seeing Heng for the first time. Did she know Dib, then? She did seem familiar. Both her appearance and her behavior. Perhaps she was one of Infinite City's many new citizens. I couldn't quite place her, though.

"Hey, Wicked, Wu Qing, and Whatever-Your-Name-Is!" Heng returned, waving merrily at the three students while he leaned back in the chair and crossed his legs. "I'm Shi Heng, but you may keep calling me Dib if you'd like."

"I'm Zhuo Ling Bin, this is Feng Yang Ming and his older twin sister, Feng Lan," Ling Bin introduced in turn. "Are you both waiting for Gui? He should be here soon; his afternoon class just let out."

"Yep! Al and I came to deliver his invitation to Al's wedding," he answered with a nod, "so we're hiding out in here to surprise him. Then again, with as messy as it is in here, he might not be able to spot us right off-hand, even if we sat on his desk."

Ling Bin directed a polite smile at me after giving Heng a knowing nod. "Mm. The Odd Squad mentioned to us that you're getting married to Jiū. Congratulations."

"Thank you," I replied, attempting to hold back my suddenly-remembered chagrin with the man for being malicious toward Gui Wen. I'd forgotten Jiao and I hadn't told Dark Phantom about our wedding. Then again, my team and I weren't all that close to them in the first place. On companionable terms, but not nearly as close as we were to the Odd Squad.

Lan abruptly whipped around to stare at me again, looking utterly confused. I met her gaze with one of neutrality. "You're not Professor Min!" she needlessly exclaimed, snatching her essay away from me as if someone who wasn't Gui Wen wasn't allowed to look at its contents.

"It's pretty easy to tell the difference, though they look similar," Yang Ming said, earning himself a nod of agreement from Ling Bin. "The professor's always kinda… goofy. Plus he never wears a suit. Why're you two wearing them for just a visit, anyway? You look all businessy."

"No particular reason. And also I never claimed that I was Gui Wen," I quietly reminded Lan, leaning back in the chair with a smile.

She looked extremely annoyed at my remark. Something prodded the back of my mind when I saw that facial expression. She was too familiar.

In my ongoing effort at becoming more perceptive and observational, I attempted to remember where I'd seen her. But, mentally sifting through all of the women I often associated with in Second Life—Yu Lian, Lolidragon, Doll, and my own teammates—there was also a woman in Dark Phantom, but I'd barely spoken to her, definitely not enough to be familiar with her as I felt with this girl—Lan didn't match up.

The only place I could stick her in my memory was the vague knowledge that she had been at the coffee shop several months ago during my business trip, but that didn't seem to be what it was.

My wondering was cut short when the real Professor Min stepped through the doorway and glared at me.

There went my fun.

Gui Wen briefly glanced at Heng—who waved enthusiastically and chirped, "Hello, Gui!"—and he then turned back to me with a very discontented stare. "Zian, what do you think you're doing in _my_ chair?"

"Sitting," I answered quietly, trying very hard to keep an innocent look on my face while he stomped around the edge of his desk and proceeded to try to unseat me. "What are you getting so mad for? It's not like you were using it—Ouch! If you're going to pull on one of my arms, pull on the right! My left is broken, in case you forgot!"

Gui Wen gasped as if he really had forgotten all about it, and promptly stopped trying to yank me to my feet. "Sorry," he quickly said while I stood up and hurried out from behind his desk to avoid any further outbursts of wrath. "Still, you shouldn't have been sitting there, confusing my students!" he added, crossing his arms irritably.

In a want not to insult Lan, I refrained from telling him it was her fault in the first place for confusing me with him.

"Too bad, Al," Heng said in sad tone while I sat down on the chair beside his. He patted my shoulder, shaking his head. "It looks like your lengthy career as a professor is over. And right when you had your first student, too."

"How disappointing," I muttered with a long, fake sigh of melancholy.

Gui Wen frowned at us a moment longer and then seated himself in his chair, patting the top of his messy desk with a polite smile as he finally turned his attention to Lan. "I'm sorry for my stupid brother and his stupid actions. What is it that you need help with, Feng Lan?"

As Lan and Gui Wen started talking about her essay, I continued my earlier musings for lack of anything more interesting to do. Perhaps Heng knew who she was. After all, she recognized his Second Life name.

"Heng," I whispered, leaning closer to him so they wouldn't hear, "do you know that girl?"

"Nope," he muttered in reply, shrugging, "but I know why you ask. Maybe she's someone from Infinite City?"

"That's what I was thinking," I said, feeling very relieved that it wasn't a case of me forgetting something again. "She's really familiar, but I can't remember anyone like her there."

"Well, it's not really important," he brushed off. "In my opinion, anyway. But you know what is?"

"What?" I asked, feeling somewhat annoyed at his abrupt change in topic. Perhaps who she was wasn't important, but I was still curious. Then again, I supposed I could just ask her at some point.

"Look what I found in one of the piles of books," Heng whispered with a sneaky grin on his face as he held up a thick comic book. My eyes widened in surprise at his discovery and he giggled behind one hand. "Gui's been reading comics during work hours! He's–"

"I have not! I confiscated that from a student earlier! He was reading it during class!" Gui Wen snapped, leaning sideways so he could see us around his students. I hadn't known Heng and I had been speaking loud enough for them to hear. I felt somewhat embarrassed for discussing Lan while she'd been able to overhear. But maybe she'd been too occupied with her essay to notice. Or so I hoped.

"Sure, I bet you did," Heng agreed sarcastically, flipping open the book and staring down at the pictures. "There's no need to lie, Gui! We won't tell anyone you were slacking off! At least it's not an adult magazine. It'd be bad if someone else had caught you with one of _those_! But your good old pal, Dib, will cover for you. No worries!"

Gui Wen leapt up and walked toward us. Grabbing us both by the jacket fronts, he pulled us to our feet and roughly shoved us out into the hallway. "You two are so annoying! Go bother Wolf in the infirmary or something, and let me work in peace!" After snatching away the comic book, he shut the door in our faces.

"He's even meaner than you are," Heng remarked in an offended sort of voice as if we weren't the ones responsible for Gui Wen's lack of amiableness, and then looked up and down the busy hallway. "Ugly Wolf's here, too, is he? Let's go find him."

At my nodded consent, he asked the nearest student where the infirmary was located, and off we went, though I'd been rather enjoying being obnoxious. But I supposed I should stop while the choice was still voluntary. Even if picking on Gui Wen was extremely entertaining.

After a few minutes of meandering up and down stairs and hallways—the instructions were very simple, but Heng wanted to "take the scenic route"—and at last we came to a halt outside the open door of the infirmary. Heng tromped inside without any regard for any patients who may have been undergoing some treatment or another, but it seemed that no one was. A bulky man sitting at the too-small-for-his-size desk looked up with an expectant smile.

"Wow!" Heng exclaimed. "You're as huge as you are in Second Life! A lot less hairy, though."

With nothing interesting to add to Heng's observations, which summed up what I'd been thinking, I stayed silent as the man stood and looked between us with a thoughtful expression. "I take it that you two are Aeolus and Dib?" he asked after a moment.

"How'd you guess?" Heng inquired, an amused smile stretching across his face as he flopped himself down to sit on the infirmary bed. I lowered myself down on one of the chairs and eased myself out of my suit jacket, carefully arranging my left arm on top of my leg. It was still aching somewhat from getting tugged on. Perhaps I should have worn my sling.

"Well," he said while he settled down in his chair again and gestured toward me. I caught myself feeling surprised that his fingers didn't have claws.

"If he were Gui, he would have come tearing through the doorway like the maniac he is, most likely whining about Prince. Because he didn't, and since the only other person I know who looks like that is Aeolus, I assumed it was him. And the only hyperactive person I know of who hangs around with Aeolus and looks similar to you is Dib."

"Oh, nice job," Heng breathed, looking thoroughly impressed, though I wasn't sure why. Anyone who knew us from in-game would probably be able to easily make such a deduction. Lan seemed to be the lone exception, so far.

"I'm Shi Heng!"

"I'm Li Tian Lang," he continued, smiling warmly at us in turn and then eying my arm and somewhat pained expression. "And to what do I owe this very unexpected visit?"

"Gui threw us out of his office, literally," Heng sighed dramatically. "He told us to come bother you instead while he worked, so we did."

Tian Lang nodded. "Gui is very serious about his work, though he usually acts so ridiculously in-game. And sometimes out of it, too. But," he continued, "you aren't a bother. In fact, I was about ready to go on my lunch break, if you two would like to join me for a trip to the cafeteria. Gui will probably be coming to eat with us after he's finished."

"We…" I started, but then caught Heng's you-better-agree-or-else stare. Darn it. "Will."

"Sorry to tell you, but there aren't any potions on the lunch menu," Tian Lang informed with forced seriousness while he stood up and removed his white lab coat.

"Oh, that's okay," I answered, standing with a small smile as the three of us left the room. "After having my professorship taken away from me by Gui Wen when I was just about to help a student with her paper, this disappointment doesn't seem so terrible in comparison."

With a deep laugh, Tian Lang locked the infirmary door and put a little 'away' sign on the doorknob. "No wonder he threw you two out of his office. You used to be so quiet and well-behaved, Aeolus, and now you're annoying Gui on purpose? Dib's been a bad influence on you."

"It's not my fault the student asked for my help without actually knowing who I was," I grumbled with feigned huffiness while I tugged my vest into order, but then paused and turned to Tian Lang with a hopeful look. "Speaking of the student, do you know Feng Lan?"

"You're still going on about that?" Heng muttered, looking somewhat annoyed that I was being so persistent.

"Yes, I know her," Tian Lang answered slowly. "Not very well, though. I've only met her once."

I frowned in disappointment and turned my attention back to the stairway we were descending. "I feel like I know her in Second Life."

Tian Lang laughed again, looking extremely amused about something as he muttered, "You noticed, did you? At least you aren't as dense as Gui."

"Noticed?" I repeated, staring up at him with renewed interest. If he didn't know her very well, why had he said something like that?

The doctor shook his head in a refusal to elaborate as we turned the last corner and aimed for the crowded cafeteria. After battling through a large throng of students, who all seemed desperate to know how "poor Professor Min" broke his arm, we used Tian Lang's employee status to escape into the kitchen. I stood off to one side so I wouldn't get in the way of the bustling cooks, staring at the wall while the other two went to get the food—I was afraid I'd drop anything if I attempted to help.

Using Tian Lang's cryptic answer as the basis for my new string of thoughts, apparently Lan was someone we all knew. And, judging by how Gui Wen was added into the remark, she was someone Tian Lang was surprised Gui Wen hadn't noticed. Meaning she was a person Gui Wen should have, or would have wanted to notice. The only person who came to mind when I thought about someone who Gui Wen would want to notice in real life was, of course, Prince. But Prince was a man…

For some reason, Prince didn't want Gui Wen to know who he was in real life. Though I'd assumed it was just because Gui Wen was irritating. It was completely understandable that Prince would want time away from him during the day, if not the night.

But Gui Wen told me that Wicked knew Prince in real life, and the whole time in the office, Ling Bin had been standing rather close to Lan. Too close for a friend. And, though I was annoyed with Ling Bin, I'd always thought of him as a decent person in general. At least, I'd always thought that way after the whole constant-glaring chapter in his and my relationship had been put to a close. He was a kind, polite person, not one who I would think would wander between two people.

Lan's behavior and appearance were extremely familiar, but not in relation to any _woman_ I knew…

"What are you looking so shocked over?" Heng asked in perplexity as he and Tian Lang finally rejoined me, each holding a large food tray. I shook my head and forced my mouth to close, not wanting to say what I'd just been thinking. An unsettled feeling filled me while I hurried toward the door to go back to the infirmary.

Thinking things through wasn't such a great idea, after all. Yet another bizarre thing I didn't understand in Second Life. Nor did I particularly want to understand why a girl would want to become a murderous male elf. It was her messy business, and I wasn't about to get caught up in the middle. That sounded like a dangerous place to be.

But why hadn't Gui Wen thought about these things? He was hopelessly obsessed with Prince, and had such a high intelligence. Wouldn't it have been easy for him to spot her here at the university? Then again, the fact that Prince wasn't a he—assuming my conclusion was correct—certainly had the potential to throw anyone off his trail.

"Al, are you okay?" Heng asked, looking at me in concern while he leaned forward in his infirmary chair.

"My head hurts," I muttered, pushing my fork around on my plate and staring vacantly at some medical chart on the wall. Since when had I come to be surrounded by such weird people? And when had that become normal?

Heng gasped and stood up, grabbing the sides of my head and turning it back and forth as if he'd be able to see the spot where it was aching, though it was just from thinking about strange things. If anything, his frantic movements were making my head hurt more.

"Is it your injury again?" he demanded. "You still remember me, right? You didn't forget me again, did you? AL, WHAT–!"

"Heng, stop yelling," I snapped, glaring up at him. "I didn't forget you. I just have a headache."

He let out a whoosh of relieved breath and sat down, apparently satisfied with my angry response. "You did take your pain meds this morning, didn't you? Wei Bo told me before we left that they're supposed to be taken every twelve hours."

"Yes, every twelve hours _if needed_. I didn't take one, since my head wasn't hurting then. I did take my vitamins, though," I replied slowly. Digging a hand into the pocket of my suit vest, I pulled out a tiny plastic bag. After fumbling with it for a moment, I gave up and handed it to Heng. He easily opened it for me and gave me the small, white pill that had been inside.

Once I'd downed the pain reliever, I reluctantly went back to picking at my food, but caught Tian Lang staring at me in confusion out of the corner of my eye. "I fell down a flight of stairs a month ago," I mumbled in explanation, dropping the fork and wiggling my left arm at him. "Broke my arm in three places, cracked several ribs, and hit my head hard enough to get amnesia… I couldn't form new memories for quite a while, and couldn't recall some of my more recent ones."

"Ouch," he replied in surprise. "Sounds like it was some fall to have done such damage to your hippocampus. Are you still forgetting things?"

"Little things here and there, nothing major. But I do get spontaneous headaches sometimes."

"Well, that's to be expected until the brain and skull have had plenty of time to heal themselves. Sounds like they're healing fine, though. There have been medical cases where people with serious head trauma are never able to form long-term memories again," he mused with a nod. I was very relieved I wasn't one of those cases.

Tian Lang sighed, scooped up a forkful of pasta and slowly ate it. "That explains why, after the talk you had with Gui after the Grand Melee, he'd been so uptight and distracted whenever he thought we weren't watching. Refused to tell us why, though," he ended, sending me a small smile. My cheeks flushed slightly at the revelation and I quickly looked down at my plate, feeling extremely happy. Gui Wen really had been worried about me.

A few minutes later, Gui Wen suddenly burst into the room and gave me an annoyed look before flopping down in an empty chair and shoving his plate of food onto the desk. "I'm finished, for now. And, thanks to you two, the entire population of the cafeteria just asked me where my cast went, and why I was eating lunch twice. Zian, why are you here, anyway?"

I pulled the wedding invitation out of my inner jacket pocket and held it out to him. He stared at it a moment, and then gingerly took it from my hand. After opening it and looking it over, he glanced back up at me with a raised eyebrow. "You came all the way here to give me this? Why didn't you just tell me in-game?"

"If I told you in-game, you'd probably forget the details before you woke up, since you've been so fixated on Prince's little vacation," I answered with a small grin.

Gui Wen frowned, but nodded in agreement as he made to slip the invitation into his pants pocket. Tian Lang snatched it away before he could do so, and ran his eyes over it. He then gave me a very hurt look. "And where's _my_ invitation?"

I silently stared at him for a long moment, wondering what to do. Though Gui Wen had told me in-game he knew Ugly Wolf in real life, I hadn't known he'd also be an employee at this university. I did have an invitation for him, but I hadn't brought it with me. In fact, Jiao had prepared a wedding invitation for everyone on the Odd Squad, though I wasn't sure why, since we didn't know their names and addresses to mail them out.

Having no other good ideas, I took the invitation from him, set it on top of the desk, grabbed a nearby pen and a napkin, and proceeded to copy down the invitation's contents. I handed the "invitation" to him after I was finished and gave him a bright smile. "I hope you'll be able to make it."

He gazed blankly at the messily written words covering the now-torn-in-many-spots napkin, and then laughed as he stowed it away in his jacket. "Thank you, I'd love to attend."

Gui Wen smirked when he took his own invitation back. "I'll be sure to clear my schedule," he muttered, and turned his attention back to his food. I intently watched as he ate, feeling immensely happy all over again.


	34. Rising Uneasiness

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

_Trying very hard to ignore the intense, focused stare pressing on me from the right, I slowly continued to chew my apple. I was coming to regret agreeing to eat lunch with everyone. As usual._

_Why had those students agreed to eat with us, anyway? I'd thought if Gui Wen was present, Ling Bin and Lan would have been sure to refuse. Yet there they were, sitting across from us at the rough, wooden table on the sunny lawn outside the literature department's building._

_They did look rather reluctant to be there, though._

_"You'd better finish that, Al," Heng said severely for the tenth time in half as many minutes—not that I was keeping count—drawing out yet another annoyed sigh from Gui Wen._

_I nodded in response, staring over the grassy campus and watching the numerous students wander about on their lunch break. Such a nostalgic sight._

_"You're too slow," he continued, cutting into the beginnings of my thoughts of my own university days, "you've been eating that apple for fifteen minutes now."_

_Sighing, I swallowed the bite I'd been purposefully chewing for as long as I could, and glanced at Heng. "How long I take to eat my food doesn't matter, as long as I actually eat it, right?"_

_Heng frowned and looked away, lips pressed together in annoyance. "W-well, I suppose. But I'm starting to get hungry again."_

_"Go buy more food if that's the case," I muttered, wondering how anyone could have possibly been hungry still after eating such a huge pile of pork and mushrooms._

_"I don't want to!" he said forcefully, leaning over the table and staring down at his empty plate with a longing expression, which completely contradicted what he'd just uttered. "You make me feel so gluttonous in comparison."_

_"I think Aeolus could do that to anyone," Ling Bin added, looking between Heng and I in amusement._

_Smiling slightly at his observation, I shrugged and continued to leisurely eat my apple as if I had all the time in the world. In curiosity, I let my eyes drop to Lan for a moment, and then nearly laughed._

I was certain now that Lan was indeed Prince. It had only been a small thing, I supposed, the last little piece of information that confirmed my musings.

No one else had reacted like that before to my aversion to eating. It wasn't that Lan had openly snapped at me, like Prince had when I'd made that declaration in his presence, but it was the brief expression that had flashed across her face on the second day of my trip to T City. Narrowed eyes, slightly opened mouth, eyebrows drawn together. That same exact look of disbelief that I was the stupidest person in the entire world for not putting food at one of the highest levels of importance in all things needed to sustain life. The look was there for less than a second, gone the next as if it had never been, but it had been there all the same.

Logging into Second Life that night, I walked along the small, cobblestone street, dodging all of the numerous bustling construction workers darting about while I headed toward the wide building Gui and I had set on fire, a slight sense of confidence giving my even steps a bit of a lightness. I'd rarely been confident in myself before, it was a somewhat unsettling feeling. I was far from being over-confident, of course, but even the tiny shreds, which gave me a hopeful air, were also tinged with dread.

Now that I discovered a secret that large, with little help from those around me, I wondered if I would be able to untie the tangled strings of my confusion over Jiū's behavior. Prince's identity was a secret grounded in facts I'd picked up from my own observation and that of other people. Jiū's behavior couldn't have been much different. Hopefully.

But what if I made a mistake? What if I thought things through, and came to some sort of a conclusion, and confronted Jiū with it, and it was completely wrong? That would be endlessly humiliating, and I didn't particularly want to risk it.

However, a difficult mystery to solve or not, I decided to try, anyway. We were going to be married; understanding one another was something I wanted to strive for. And also, I'd never particularly attempted to think things through in the past. All I'd done was get annoyed that they were being confusing and waited for an explanation, rather than try to sort it all out, which seemed like a very good idea when it came to being more perceptive in the future. Though I highly doubted I'd become all-knowing after figuring out one thing. Even if that one thing was extremely huge.

Slipping through the tall, arching doorway, I gave a brief glance to the three Odd Squad members present—Yu Lian, Ugly Wolf, and, ever-so-unfortunately, Lolidragon—and hurried across the large, cold room, toward the table in the corner I'd been provided with at last to continue my work. The others had seemed a bit skeptical at first at my wanting only a table—it seemed Yu Lian alone was thrilled that I was such a low-budget person—but I didn't want an entire shop to work out of, nor did I want a room anywhere else—apparently there was a castle and "important teams" were staying there; the Odd Squad, and Dark Phantom, and whoever else. But, although those had been offered to my team and I, we declined. It was somewhat pointless to accept such things, with as little time my team and I preferred to spend in the city.

Not that my preferences were really important when one got right down to it; this game was starting to feel more like a full-time job than a recreational activity. At least I'd finished all of those arrows Yu Lian had set me on. Now I was on the second of the many tasks on my very long list; I had to make a hundred short bows. It seemed a bit less daunting than the five hundred arrows, though now I was working alone, because I'd told Dib and the others to go train without me. It was my responsibility, I didn't want to bore everyone else as well.

Sitting down on the small, wooden stool by the table, I quickly dragged a strip of rough wood to myself and began whittling away at it, swiftly but carefully shaping out a new bow limb. A small shower of wood chips and thin curly bits began drifting downward from my hands, sending a soft, dusty scent into the air. Perhaps if I got my daily quota done in a timely manner, I'd be able to train for a few hours with the others before I had to wake up again.

"You don't have to work so diligently, you know."

I glanced up at the teasing smile of Lolidragon and looked back down at the half-made bow while she leaned over the table, brushing away some of the pale wood shavings. "If I didn't, the work wouldn't get done, and Yu Lian would get angry. Not only do I want to avoid getting scolded again, I also think she has quite enough to stress about already."

"Sheesh, you're so serious," she muttered with a sigh, sitting herself on top of one corner of the square table.

She watched me in silence for a moment, and then looked toward the hall's sunny entrance. "Aren't you bored? It's not like you can't go train with your team every once and a while." At my tiny shake of the head, she rolled her pink eyes. "You should go visit Jiū regularly, at least."

"She also has things to do, she'll understand," I replied at once, sending an annoyed look up to Lolidragon when she started playing with one of the bows I'd already made. I did miss Jiū, not being able to see her for so many days, but I didn't want to bother her while she was busy with her own duties. She'd been helping with the building of the city wall, enchanting the bricks to make the wall sturdier in the long run. It sounded complicated, and I didn't want to get in the way.

Lolidragon frowned and soundly whacked the top of my head with the bow. "Stupid, what sort of excuse is that? Just because she's busy doesn't mean she doesn't want you to visit her."

Snatching away the bow from Lolidragon, I put it back with the others and quickly resumed my carving. "…I'll go visit her when I'm done."

After a long moment of silent staring, Lolidragon slipped off the edge of the table and crossed her arms. Her eyes narrowed and a tiny smirk quirked at one corner of her lips. "Did you know there's been a super handsome guy hanging around Jiū recently? They seem to be getting pretty friendly with one another. What would you do if someone stole her away while you're cooping yourself up in here?"

"That would never happen," I answered flatly, though I did feel a tiny twinge of unease and jealousy at her words. But I trusted Jiū. There were countless people working on building the city wall along side her. It would have been silly of me to expect her to never come in contact with other men.

A tiny laugh bubbled out of Lolidragon, and her disbelieving leer deepened as she watched my blank expression falter. "You sure have a lot of self-confidence. How do you know for sure that nothing'll happen? With as cute as she is, I'm not surprised. They looked really close, last time I saw them talking with one another. She sure didn't seem to mind his attention. And–"

"Leave me be," I snapped, angrily looking up at her. Why did she have to be so prying?

She wasn't phased at all by my furious response. With a careless shrug, she flipped her pink hair over one shoulder and presumptuously walked away, her boots clacking noisily on the stone floor. "Don't get all depressed later on if something really does happen, it'll be your fault for not paying her any attention. They're probably out there together right now, deepening their bonds!"

Giving her one last murderous look while she waved goodbye to Yu Lian and Ugly Wolf, I returned to my work when she disappeared out the door. My hands didn't seem to want to move anymore as her words kept relentlessly ringing in my ears, so I let them rest on top of the scratchy, wood shavings-covered table.

It wasn't that I'd been neglecting Jiū on… Damn it, there was that thought again. "It wasn't on purpose" always seemed to be my excuse for everything that I carelessly overlooked. Was I really so confident that nothing would happen? I truly did trust Jiū not to do anything. And also, in comparison to myself and how tolerant I was with people touching me, she was much more guarded, so I wasn't worried that she would accidentally get close to someone in a physical manner.

But that certainly didn't mean I trusted some random man interested in her to keep his hands off.

With that thought suddenly lodged in my head, carving bows suddenly didn't seem very important.

Dropping my knife and unfinished bow on the table, I got up and strode back across the room, extending my wings as I went. Ignoring Ugly Wolf and Yu Lian's questioning looks as I passed them by, I stepped outside into the nearly-blinding sunlight and immediately launched myself into the summery air.

Anger toward the unknown man began to pound through my head while I flew as fast as I could toward the eastern side of the city where the builders were currently working. With as tiny as the city had been but two weeks before, I was somewhat annoyed with how long it took me to get to the edge. While there had only been a tower and a few piddly-looking buildings here and there, now there were houses and shops dotting the land, trees and flowers planted all over, a marketplace, roads built and threading through the town. It was just like any of the other three cities, and possibly even bigger.

Searching the ground several minutes later when I reached the area over the construction site, I looked for Jiū among the countless people. It only took a moment before my eyes snagged on her, standing to one side and chatting to a man who had his back to me.

Barely keeping myself from yanking out my bow and stabbing him full of arrows, I landed heavily on the ground and stomped over to them, fists clenched in preparation to beat him to a pulp for talking to my fiancée so casually. Jiū saw me coming while I was still a ways off, and looked very startled at my sudden, violent appearance.

I nearly had a heart attack when the man who'd been speaking to her turned around, and Gui's curious face stared back at me. **"LOLIDRAGON, I HATE YOU SO MUCH!"** I screamed furiously at the stupid thief over a private message.

She'd tricked me.

Though it really hadn't helped that Gui had taken off his purple cloak, and had his dark hair tied up out of the way, making it difficult at first glance to recognize him from behind. It was rather hot outside, especially in such a busy area, so I supposed I couldn't really blame him for wanting to cool himself off while he oversaw the construction's progress.

**"Serves you right, you moron! You should be thanking me for getting you off your butt to go see your neglected fiancée!"** came her swift, gleeful, and laughter-filled reply.

Feeling my face burn with embarrassment at the maddening truth in her words, I continued my approach at a much slower pace, and eventually stopped beside them, wings pressed firmly up against my back to keep them from twitching.

"What are you doing here?" Gui asked, raising an eyebrow at my extremely angry expression. "Did something happen?"

Taking several deep breaths, I shook my head. "…I just wanted to come visit," I muttered quietly, staring down at the layout of the wall Gui had drawn, which was spread across the table between the two. That was probably what they'd been talking about. Though the situation had become clear, I couldn't get the worry out of my head of someone else trying to get close to Jiū. But it wasn't like I could stick to her every second to fend off any suspicious persons.

In an effort to calm myself down, I turned to watch the workers hurry about. "How's this all coming along? Looks like you're almost done," I observed, waving a hand in greeting when I saw Doll swinging her staff around in my direction from her far-off perch on top of a pile of enormous bricks. A large number of her skeletons were bustling to and fro between the brick pile and the wall, helping the somewhat frightened-looking players speed up the building.

"Yeah, it went quicker than I'd thought. But with so many people Prince rounded up, it progressed pretty fast," Gui agreed with a slight sigh while he pushed his bangs out of the way. He poked at the area of his blueprint where we were located. "Only this section of the wall is left unfinished where the eastern gate will be built. We'll probably complete it within a few days."

"Mm, I see." A very long silence stretched out as we watched the builders continue. Now that I was there, I didn't know what to say to Jiū. She'd been so cold before I'd left, I was a bit hesitant to talk just in case she was still mad at me for whatever it was I'd done to upset her.

Before I could think of anything interesting to say, Jiū took a step away from the table. "Well, I better get back to work," she said softly, smiling at Gui and I. She then hurried off before I could stop her. I watched her run up to Doll, feeling extremely dejected that it seemed I really was getting in her way. Perhaps I should have just ignored Lolidragon's teasing and stayed put in the hall to do my own work, rather than coming to bother Jiū while she was busy. She hadn't even given me the time to say goodbye to her.

"Why don't you go after her?" Gui asked after a pause. "You did come all the way here to see her, didn't you?"

My face turned red all over again. "W-well, she… she, she's just…" I sputtered, attempting to form coherent words around my flustered panic at how quickly she'd left. For lack of any vocal explanation, I waved a hand toward where she'd escaped to and then turned away, staring hard at the wall of a nearby shop.

Nearly a minute passed, and Gui then took me by the shoulders, twisting me back around. He gave me a knowing stare and leaned on my arm. "I bet she wants you to interrupt. She looked over here while you were gazing so ardently at that wall."

I blankly stared back at his bizarre expression, and then smirked at the situation. A person who couldn't even recognize the love of his life, though he saw her nearly every day, was saying such insightful things.

"Since when have _you_ been an expert on women?"

"Since now," he replied confidently, shaking me back and forth as he cleared his throat importantly as if he was preparing himself for giving me a very long lecture. "Here's what you should do. First; you need to get yourself into a skippy mindset."

"'Skippy'?" I echoed in bewilderment. What in the world did that mean? Was that what he called how he acted around Prince? It certainly was "skippy", but that definitely wouldn't have been my first word choice to describe his insanity.

He didn't seem to notice that I'd interrupted him, and he continued, "Second; run after her as fast as you can. Third; yell–"

I held up a hand so he'd stop talking, and shook my head in disbelief over his suggestions. He actually had a pattern he followed? I'd thought it was all spontaneous.

"No. Absolutely not."

"Why?" he inquired, looking somewhat offended that I didn't want to chase Jiū around like an idiot. "It's a good way to get your feelings across, you know. It makes things very clear."

"And it's also a good way to make people wonder if you're right in the head," I snapped in annoyance. There was no way I wanted to act like he did.

"Who cares what other people think?" Gui huffed, narrowing his eyes at me as if I was being unreasonable. "It's a very effective method of getting the target's undivided attention. Works all the time with Prince, you know."

"I care what Jiū thinks," I snarled, shoving him off me and crossing my arms. "I'm not about to go prancing about like a moron just to get her attention. There are other far less humiliating ways."

"She'd probably think it was funny," Gui mused, smiling in a very airheaded way. "Prince always enjoys himself very much when I do that. Though it's probably just because he likes beating me up, rather than because he thinks it's humorous. Anyway, you were running around like a crazy person the other day when you set fire to the hall."

He had a point.

But I still wasn't going to do it.

Sighing, I glanced at him once more and smiled at his ridiculousness. "Thank you for the advice, but I'll do things my own way."

He rolled his eyes and returned his attention to the wall's diagram. "Suit yourself," he muttered, waving a hand at me so I'd go away and let him concentrate.

Taking a deep breath, I scraped together my shreds of courage and walked over to where Jiū was standing with Doll. My wings fluttered more and more nervously the closer I got, until I retracted them out of annoyance, and out of a want not to accidentally hit anyone while I passed by.

I stopped directly behind Jiū and watched in impressed silence as she mumbled a lengthy spell under her breath, waving her wand toward the pile of large bricks Doll was still standing on top of. The edges of the stone blocks were glowing slightly, the light gaining strength as she continued.

Her wand made a popping noise when she gave it one more flourish and sighed when the light abruptly faded away. Doll's skeletons and a few players rushed forward to replenish their burdens as Jiū took a long drink of a mana potion.

"That was pretty," I remarked after a moment, watching the builders dash toward the wall to put the bricks in place.

Jiū gave a surprised gasp when I spoke and tilted her head backward to look up at me as I stepped closer. Smiling, I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and pulled her against me. Her wings briefly stiffened up at the close contact, but relaxed a moment later. "You're still here," she murmured, sounding as though she'd expected me to be long gone by then.

"Of course I am," I replied. "You ran off before I had a chance to speak to you." Doll gave us both a tiny smile and turned to face the wall as though she was trying to give us privacy, though we were in the middle of a crowd of people. Though a small part of me wanted to glance around and see if any of the male builders nearby were watching, I kept my focus on Jiū, once again attempting to block out the unjustified uneasiness in my mind over not being able to constantly keep an eye on her.

Bending down, I lightly kissed the top of Jiū's head, very much enjoying the feeling of the soft, white strands playing across my face. "I miss you. Are you still feeling sick at all?"

She was still and silent for a long moment, and then lifted a hand, giving my arm a squeeze and shaking her head. I was relieved for that much, at least. It had only been a day and a half, did that mean she'd really been pretending in a want not to see me off?

"You're coming home tomorrow… aren't you?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yes, I'll be back in the early afternoon," I answered, suddenly feeling a bit scared of the idea.

Another long silence stretched out, and Jiū's hand tightened around my arm. "Is Dib going to be there as well?"

I stared at the top of her head in bewilderment. "…No, I don't think so," I replied after a pause. "After we land, he and I are planning on separating at the airport. He needs to pick up his brothers from their friend's house where they're staying while we're visiting Gui Wen. Why do you ask?"

"Because, I want to speak to you, alone," she answered quietly, her soft voice growing to be somewhat harsh on the last word. She took a deep breath and tugged on my arm. I reluctantly let her go and she turned to face me, her face completely expressionless. "And then I want to speak to you both."


	35. Between the Three

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

I watched in very strained silence while Jiao slowly picked up her green teacup, took a small drink, and set it back down again, hands shaking all the while. She hadn't spoken a word ever since I returned home with Heng and his three hyperactive little brothers in tow, all four of whom were running around outside to wait until Jiao was finished with whatever it was she wanted to talk to me about.

And although I knew she was nervous, I couldn't help but mentally urge her on. I may have liked silence, but not the kind where I felt as though I was waiting to be led to my execution. The taciturn air was so thick, I was starting to have trouble breathing properly.

Jiao stared wordlessly at me for several minutes, looking like she was attempting to force on a polite smile. She eventually gave up and began to gaze at the opposite wall instead. This was like our first meeting all over again, only a million times more awkward. With as quiet as she was being, was she expecting me to say something? The only thing I could think of to say was to ask what was bothering her.

The last time I'd asked someone that, all hell broke loose.

"How was your trip?" Jiao asked quietly, eyes briefly darting back to meet mine before she returned to her determined wall-staring.

"It went very well. Heng and I got to meet Wicked, Wu Qing, and Ugly Wolf in the process of finding Gui Wen," I answered, grinning slightly in remembrance. "They're all at the same university. And we all ate lunch together outside on the grounds yesterday afternoon, it was nice. It was kind of strange, though, watching Wicked being so civil with Gui Wen with as much as those two fight in Second Life," I mused.

"Heng and I checked out of our hotel after the first night and forced Gui Wen to let us stay in his apartment for the rest of our visit. He didn't like that at all. The number of books he owns is unbelievable. I have hundreds of his that he left at our father's house, and his office at the university is lined wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling with them, and his apartment is… very packed. Stacks of books all over the place. It's a wonder his floor doesn't collapse under the weight.

"We three went out to breakfast with Tian Lang—that is, Ugly Wolf—this morning before Heng and I left for the airport. They all threatened me with various eating utensils until I ate a whole pancake, though I'd told them over and over that I only wanted a glass of orange juice. Those jerks.

"And…" I paused, eyes widening as my face flushed slightly. All Jiao had asked was how my trip had gone. What if I was boring her with my unneeded recounts?

"It sounds like you had fun," Jiao observed faintly after I shut my mouth to stop any further rambling from taking place. "Delivering the invitation in person seems like it was the better choice, after all, with how energetic it's made you afterward."

I shrugged in embarrassment. "Sorry, I didn't mean to talk so much…"

"Why are you apologizing for speaking?" she questioned, a disbelieving frown darkening her hurt expression. "You're so talkative and animated with people nowadays, yet whenever I try to talk to you, you shut yourself up and refuse to tell me anything. Do you think I'm going to be disappointed if you slip up and act childish with me rather than being the 'perfect husband', which you seem to be so fixated on becoming? Or is it that you think your father is the one who will be disappointed in you if you don't live up to his standards in this marriage? But I guess he's the only reason you'd ever marry me, anyway, so I don't know why I was expecting anything more from you than is required. This is just an arranged marriage, it's not like there are necessarily any feelings involved."

I stared at her in utter surprise over her sudden outburst. Not that I thought it was ridiculous or anything. On the contrary, I couldn't truthfully deny any of it at all. It was as if she'd somehow read my mind and given voice to my most basic views on quite a few things. But the way she'd said it made it sound so horrible. Or perhaps it was simply the fact that she had said it out loud.

She took a deep, shuddering breath and continued, "I hate how miserable you've been looking lately, which is why I made the suggestion of going to T City in the first place, but I hate even more that you were so happy at the idea of getting to leave. I've only just got you to stop thinking you're going back to your father's house now that you're better, but it's like you hate living here with me. You didn't even come to visit me in-game until Lolidragon forced you!"

When I inhaled to frantically defend myself against that moronic thief's actions, Jiao held up a hand and glared at me. "I don't want to hear an excuse about how busy you and I were. I understand that perfectly well," she said with deliberate slowness. "But I can't stand how content with being alone you are. It's just," she furthered, smiling slightly as she drew a hand over her eyes, "as I said, I don't know why I was expecting anything different. You've never been interested in having anyone around for company… Dib being the one and only exception, it seems.

"You know," she whispered after another pause, "you know… after I told the Odd Squad about our engagement… Lolidragon messaged me a day or so later, after they'd won the Grand Melee." A tiny smirk briefly flashed across Jiao's face, and she then went entirely blank and lifeless. "I can still hear the words in my head. Her flippant, curious tone as she remarked, 'Wow, Jiū! And here I'd been thinking this whole time that Aeolus was dating Dib!'"

"She was mistaken," I immediately answered, forcing my voice to stay level. Of all the things Lolidragon had ever done to me, indirectly or not, I didn't think any of them could compare with this in how angry they made me. How could she say such things so carelessly?

"Was she?" Jiao mused, sounding somewhat skeptical. "You two are together all the time. You're always carrying him, and holding his hand, and letting him touch you so casually. I'd thought nothing of your behavior with him until he and I met the first time he visited you after you were injured. I'd been expecting a little boy, and then Heng showed up, all in smiles. D-did you think I wouldn't be bothered by how my fiancée was continually acting so flirtatiously with another man?"

Leaning forward, I rested my head in one hand, and sighed deeply. "You sound as though you think Heng and I have been sleeping together."

A long silence stretched out, but I refused to look up. I never would have expected her to bring up this topic. Why was everyone so convinced that Heng and I were in that sort of relationship?

"Have you?" came Jiao's faint question at last.

Staring hard at the patches of carpeted floor I could see between my fingers, I smiled as several tears spilled over my eyelids and ran down my face. I could hardly believe she'd said that.

"Do you have any idea how much you just hurt me?" I asked softly, laughing humorlessly for a moment while I sat up straight to look at her again. "…You really see me as such a person who would be unfaithful to you just because this is an arranged marriage? Do I really have so little of your trust? I would never do that, with Heng or anyone else, and not only out of a want to honor my promises to you as your husband."

"Well, what am I supposed to think?" she inquired in return. "What am I supposed to think when you two are so physical with one another, yet you usually respond to my touches and advances with rejection? And how am I supposed to react when I walk in on you two embracing one another in your bedroom while he's whispering about how much he loves you? How much do you think that hurt _me_?"

"…Yes, that happened," I answered with a nod, finally realizing just why she'd locked herself in her room before I'd left, "and it shouldn't have. However, if you had watched until the end, you would have heard him saying goodbye to me.

"And yes, he and I are very close with one another, apparently much more than we should be. But that's how it's always been between us. I'd never thought it was strange, and I still don't think that. I suppose I shouldn't have continued to do so, especially since it gave him false hopes, but I was completely honest with him when he told me how he felt. He took the relationship between you and I into account, and didn't pursue anything further afterward.

"You have to understand," I sighed, "he and I… not once have I wanted anything from him more than friendship, especially not in regard to having a sexual relationship with him. I've never even briefly thought about anything of the sort. Hearing his feelings… honestly, they were completely unexpected. Perhaps they were obvious to other people, but I was never looking for such things in him. It'd be like if… if Chen-mèi suddenly confessed to you, or something of that sort," I ended in a mutter, feeling more embarrassed than I had earlier. It was a bizarre example, but I really couldn't think of anything more fitting right off-hand.

"Chen-dàsăo and I never flirt with one another," Jiao pointed out in annoyance.

"And I've never flirted with Heng!" I countered hotly. "Hugging him so often and spending a lot of time with him doesn't mean I have romantic feelings for him."

"Chen-dàsăo and I are _women_! You two are _men_! Have ever you seen Delun-dàgē hanging all over Dib or Heng in the way that you do? Or any of the male friends we have in Second Life—of course, not including Gui, Wicked, and Prince, since their intentions are obvious. That behavior between men–"

"That's gender discrimination," I interrupted, irritably crossing my arms and leaning against the back of my armchair. "Just because there's some unspoken rule that men are required to be very fixated on being tough and relatively unemotional doesn't mean we shouldn't also be allowed to be casually physical with one another, like the close contact between two women who are just friends. I know it's easily seen by others as something deeper, but it really isn't that. At least, for my part."

"And," I began again, trying to sort out my thoughts, "as to why… why, as you said, at times in the past I have rejected those sorts of things with you, that's not at all because I-I don't… want to do so," I said, attempting to calm the blush which was now raging across my face. I took a deep breath, and tried to look her in the eye. "I've never been in this sort of relationship before, and I don't… well, I… don't want to touch you too much. It's not that I'm not… interested… just cautious. I don't have faith in my own self control to keep myself from doing anything to you."

Jiao's face flushed deeply and she covered her face with both hands, muttering something under her breath while she shook her head at me. I waited several minutes for her to repeat herself, but she didn't move.

"W-what did you say?" I asked hesitantly, wondering what she was doing.

"I SAID I DON'T MIND IF YOU TOUCH ME TOO MUCH!" she abruptly screamed, jumping off her armchair and stomping over to the window, which I was very happy to see was closed, with her face still half-covered.

I gaped at her back for a moment, wondering if she'd really just said what I thought she had, and went back to staring at the floor, feeling extremely discomposed. "Well, _I_ mind," I quietly added after several minutes of uneasy silence. "A lot."

"…And why is that?" Jiao asked hotly, still refusing to turn around and face me again.

Slowly standing, I stepped up behind her and sighed. Raising my hand, I tangled my fingers in the ends of her hair and fiddled with the strands for a moment. "Several reasons," I muttered. "Firstly; we aren't married yet, and I'd rather wait. Secondly; we've only just been properly introduced to one another not even two months ago, and I'm not sure if I'm used to all of this yet. You implied earlier that you're under the impression that I have no feelings for you, because of my distant attitude. That isn't true, I really do have them, but I'm also not going to go so far as to tell you that I love you, because I really don't know if I do. As I said, it's just… too early to tell, I guess. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to in the future. And thirdly; I don't particularly want to… inconvenience you during your university years…"

"You're too fixated on keeping everything and everyone harmonious," she grumbled. "You think having children would be inconvenient?"

"At the moment, yes," I answered at once. "I don't know about you, but I'm certainly nowhere near ready to be a parent, and I also don't want you to have to take care of a baby on top of everything else you have to handle." Staring out the sunny window, I sighed again and drew Jiao against me. "And it's not that I don't want children. Eventually, I do. I know it sounds like I'm trying to avoid complicated situations simply because I don't want to be bothered, and, to be honest, that's usually why I try to disinvolve myself from various things, but I'm really not this time. I just… I want us both to be ready. Is that understandable?"

Jiao nodded silently and turned around. She stared thoughtfully up at me for a long moment. Leaning forward, she hugged me and sighed, closing her eyes as she buried her face into my chest. "Hearing you say that makes me very relieved."

Awkwardly wrapping my left arm around her as well as my right, I let the warmth bubble over and smiled in contentment. "In the future, if you're concerned about things, don't hesitate to tell me about them, okay?" I requested softly. "I was really worried when you wouldn't talk to me. I felt as though you didn't think I could be of help. Coupling that with how I've been doing nothing productive since I was injured… I felt so useless."

"You're not useless," she murmured. "I'm sorry I let things build up. I just didn't want to add to what you were going through with your father and all. But I guess my efforts backfired."

"They did," I agreed with a small chuckle.

Jiao leaned away from me, a stern, narrow-eyed look on her face. "This goes both ways, just so you know. Don't keep things from me."

"I never have," I answered seriously, "intentionally, I guess."

She laughed for a moment and rolled her eyes. "I guess." Taking a step backward, she glanced out the window and sighed. "Would you go get Dib now? I want to ask him something."

I stared down at her for a moment, suddenly feeling worried. "…You're not going to start a fight with him, are you? He already gave up on me, like I told you."

She threw a glare at me and went to sit back down on her chair. Leaning over the small table, she inspected the tea set and then refilled her teacup. "Just go get him, please?" she asked, looking somewhat annoyed that I hadn't moved yet.

Hesitating a moment longer, I gave her a nod and left the small room to go find him. I hoped nothing argumentative would take place. Jiao wasn't the type of person to start fights—nor did I suppose Heng was, at least, not _serious_ fights—but seeing how violent calm people like Ling Bin got over topics such as love rivals, I wasn't sure what was going to happen when putting Heng and Jiao in the same room.

I went downstairs and hurried out the back door, through which I could hear a great deal of screaming. Pausing on the steps just outside, I watched in amusement as Heng raced across the evenly cut grass, chasing his brothers while yelling wildly.

"It's like having four overgrown Dibs around," Delun muttered from his seat on the top step. I glanced at his annoyed scowl and smiled in agreement. "They've been doing this ever since you left them out here. I'm getting tired just watching—Hey, I wouldn't do that if I were you," he called when I quickly descended the steps and walked toward the romping siblings.

Stopping while they looped around a tree, I watched as Heng suddenly let out a surprised yell and pointed at me. "IT'S AL, GRAB HIM!"

My eyes widened when the triplets charged toward me, and, fearing for my life, I lifted up my right hand to halt them. Thankfully, they paused in their running, if only because they were being careful about my arm's injury. "I surrender!" I announced quickly, then pointed at Delun, "but he doesn't."

"Zian, you jerk!" Delun yelled when the boys laughed as they directed themselves at him. He jumped off the steps and ran away when they got too close. His angry words didn't reach his face as a playful smile appeared. I doubted he'd ever admit it, but he looked like he was enjoying himself quite a bit.

Heng strode up a few seconds later, breathing heavily, and he smiled with relief. "Good call, Al. Wei Bo's been sitting there the whole time, grumpily pretending like he didn't want to play, too, though we invited him several times. Better him than me now, I feel like my legs are going to fall off."

"Well, I hope you can make it upstairs before that happens," I said, smirking at him.

"It's my turn now, is it?" he muttered absently, eyes following Delun's progress across the lawn. The triplets quickly caught up to him and they all fell to the ground in a screaming pile. Heng sighed and reluctantly nodded, taking off toward the house. "Wouldn't want to keep her waiting, I guess."

Following after, we made our way back upstairs. Jiao leapt to her feet and smiled hesitantly when we walked into the small sitting room. The fact that she wasn't glaring at Heng made me feel a bit better, and I watched while they sat down in the dark green armchairs arranged around the small table, not really knowing whether I was expected to stay or leave. When Jiao glanced up at me in slight confusion, I awkwardly slipped onto the chair beside hers, wishing a bit that I'd been sent away.

Heng shifted uncomfortably where he sat while Jiao silently stared at him. She suddenly took a deep breath, anxiety spilling onto her face when she leaned forward. Heng flinched at the abrupt, startling movement as if he thought she was going to jump over the table and attack him. Her mouth dropped open, then she finally blurted, "Dib, do you hate me?"

Heng's eyes widened in shock and several long seconds ticked by while he stared at her in bewilderment. He gave me a brief glance, to which I shrugged, and he looked back to her. I couldn't blame him for being so confused. I hadn't been expecting this, either.

Relaxing himself slightly, Heng shut his mouth and slowly shook his head. "No, I don't hate you," he answered quietly. Sighing, he shook his head again as if he'd rethought his answer. "Well, to be more honest, I don't hate you as an individual. It's your…" He paused and gestured between she and I. "Yes, that I do hate… a lot. But I'll get used to it eventually, I suppose. I'm not going to interfere or anything, if that's what you're worried about," he mumbled, staring blankly down at the floor.

"Oh," Jiao breathed, smiling in relief as she leaned back in her chair. "I'd thought you hated me, because… well, because of all this."

Heng laughed slightly and gave her a tiny smile. "I'm not as petty as that."

"I've never thought of your feelings as being petty just because I also don't like your relationship with Zian," Jiao corrected, frowning at him while she reached for her teacup. "On the contrary. You're an important friend of Zian's _and_ mine, and I care for you. I didn't want there to be any animosity between us in the future."

His laugh deepened while he finally sat up straight again. "Good grief," he muttered airily while Jiao took a long drink of tea. "You two are so alike, always concerned with other people's well-being, no matter who they are."

"I am?" I asked, feeling a bit disbelieving. I'd always thought I was rather passive toward other people.

"Yes," the other two answered at once, and Heng added, "to the point of being extremely irritating." Jiao nodded in agreement and I gave them both indignant glances.

Their soft laughter faded away, and Heng sighed again, a seriousness settling over his eyes. "I really don't hate you, Jiao," he said in a slightly earnest tone as if he needed to convince her. He smiled at her again while she looked back with alleviation. "I also think of you as my friend, and I really… I don't hold this against you or anything like that."

Jiao nodded when he paused for a moment. Slowly standing up, he stared toward the window. "I apologize ahead of time if… if I do something to Al that I shouldn't, though I'll try not to. And please, don't just put up with it for the sake of my feelings. Feel free to yell at me, or hit me, or however you see fit to stop me."

At our wordless agreement, he smiled and turned toward the door with a wave of his hand. "I suppose I should go rescue my brothers from Wei Bo. We'll be going home, see you two tonight."

"Goodbye," I called after him, watching while he strode across the room and disappeared out the door. Though happy that things had become slightly more ordered between the three of us, I couldn't help but feel as though I'd just seen my friend for the last time.


	36. A Wish for Peace

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

_Delun and I watched with intense focus, nearly holding our breath as the doctor carefully sawed through my arm's thick cast, all the way from nearly my shoulder down to my hand. I was filled with excitement and anticipation at finally getting to use my arm again. It was like I was being reunited with a dear old friend I hadn't seen in over a month._

_The doctor set the saw to one side, then slowly slipped the cast off my arm. I stared blankly down at it, feeling like I'd just been cheated out of something. Delun abruptly began to roar with laughter._

_"Be quiet!" I ordered in embarrassment, attempting to roll down the left sleeve of my sweater as fast as I could, though it didn't really help the situation, since he'd already seen. The thick, blue cloth flapped loosely around my arm, unlike my right sleeve, which fit just fine._

_Delun continued laughing, his face turning red as he shook his head and pointed at my now-covered arm. "It's so skinny! You twig!"_

_I refrained from glaring up at the doctor, as if it was all his fault my arm was so pale and scrawny, and angrily stared at the creamy-colored wall instead, silently seething at Delun's reaction. This must have been why he'd insisted on coming into the examination room with me, rather than waiting in the lobby with Chen and Shuang._

_He was going to pay for this later._

_"It's normal for a newly-healed broken limb to be a bit thin," the doctor loudly explained over Delun's gasps for air. The doctor, looking confused over how hilarious Delun thought this all was, cleared his throat and continued, "Since you haven't used it for so long, the muscles have atrophied. With exercise, it'll be back to how it was soon enough."_

**"STOP DOING THAT!"** Wei Bo screamed in terror at me over the team channel. I watched for a moment as he raced across the dusty land far underneath my perch, lifting his red shield above his head to block the enormous sword, which was flying down upon him. A loud metallic clang echoed through the air, joining in with all of the yelling coming from below.

**"Doing what?"** I replied with serene innocence as if I had no idea what he was talking about, carefully aiming my longbow at yet another giant. The arrow I let loose deeply buried itself in the giant's shoulder and the monster howled in pain as it tromped in our direction.

Wei Bo bellowed something out loud I couldn't understand because of how far away he was—probably some swear word or another—while he ran across the rocky ground, attempting to escape from the giants following relentlessly after him.

**"You're the one who told me to pull some for you, surely you can take on that small number with Dib and Avila-mèi as backup? Or shall I come swooping to your rescue?"**

**"Shut up, Twig! You don't have any right to call this huge crowd a 'small number' when you're hiding up there where they can't reach!"** he huffed and twirled around, stabbing his long sword into one of the giant's knees.

**"There's only twelve," **I observed in amusement, watching leisurely while Avila sliced her nan dao across the back of the giant's shins. Dib leapt onto the giant's back as it fell to the ground, bloody legs unable to support its weight anymore, and began chopping at both sides of its thick neck.

Wei Bo threw a very dirty look upward in my direction after the game informed us that one of the giants had been defeated. **"Don't make me come up there, you moron! I'd like to see **_**you**_ **take on twelve giants at once, with backup or not!"**

**"Good luck climbing up the cliff while the giants are trying to dismember you,"** I replied airily, giving him a wave before pulling out another arrow and engaging another giant in the fight.

**"I **_**SAID**_** STOP DOING THAT!"**

Xiu Chen rolled her green eyes and flipped open her priest's book. I glanced down at her as she read off a sentence, and the three warriors' speed immediately increased as they ran about on the ground, surrounding the next giant in a triangular arrangement.

"I know he laughed at your arm, but don't get him killed with all of these giants," Xiu Chen commanded sternly once she closed her book and went back to watching the battle.

"Laughed" was an understatement. He hadn't calmed down until we'd already arrived home again, nearly half an hour after my cast had been removed. Who knew why he thought it was so humorous, but it made me very irritated. I was now determined to annoy him as much as possible, for as long as possible, and in as many ways as possible. I may not have been the sort of person who held grudges, but I certainly was one for spur-of-the-moment pestering.

_"Dib's been a bad influence on you." _Ugly Wolf's comment from the other day outside X University's infirmary rang in my ears while I attempted to think up some new way to bother Wei Bo.

Perhaps he had been.

Oh, well.

"It _is_ rather funny-looking, you know," Jiū teased as she paused in her wand-waving, playfully smiling up at me. "You're all lop-sided."

Great. Wei Bo had gotten her in on it, too. Good thing most of my tops were long-sleeved.

"That doesn't mean he has to make fun of it so much," I mumbled as I drew back my arrow and let it fly toward one of the giants already chasing the warriors around, rather than shooting a new one into the fight. Just because Xiu Chen asked me to be nicer, not because I was finished picking on Wei Bo. Also because I didn't want Dib and Avila to die because I'd gathered too many mobs. Anyway, there weren't any more wandering around nearby I could pull.

Jiū curiously stared at me for a long moment as I shot another arrow, causing one of the giants to stumble to the ground as I hit its leg, nearly squishing Wei Bo underneath. Not that I was _trying_ to squish him… Maybe.

"What if I made fun of it?" Jiū asked, her gray eyes narrowed in a tiny smirk.

"_You_ can all you want," I answered, flashing her an amused look while I lowered my bow and settled into a more relaxed stance. "But please, go easy on me, or else I might be forced to retaliate."

She made a disbelieving noise at my threat and crossed her arms as she strode up to stand in front of me, eyebrows drawn together in a challenging smile, body lifted up on her tip-toes. Her white wings stretched themselves out to their full span of nearly ten feet as if she wanted to look more impressive. "What'll you do, get a giant to chase me around? You'll have to come up with something pretty clever to stop me."

Leaning forward, I stared her in the eye and grinned in return as I ran one finger along the soft feathers on top of her right wing. "Oh, I have my ways of getting revenge for any teasing that may take place."

"You two!" Xiu Chen whined, giving us both a flustered glance. "Go flirt somewhere else! I don't want to hear or see it!"

Rolling my eyes and feeling disappointed that we'd been interrupted yet again, I straightened myself and pulled out an arrow. Giving her embarrassed frown a nod, I fell backward off the rocky outcropping we were gathered on. Extending my wings, I leveled out and directed myself toward where the other three were still battling. I only had a few more arrows left, and I wanted to get in a bit more Annoying Time before I used up the remainder.

**"Go away! We don't need you down here!"** Wei Bo growled when he saw me approaching. I ignored his sharp dismissal, and continued to zoom toward him through the shadows of the gully. Raising my bow, I steadied my hand while gliding through the air, and aimed.

**"CHE-E-EN! HE'S TRYING TO KILL ME!"** Wei Bo screamed when he finally noticed where my bow was pointing.

Tattle tale.

**"I'm not." **I quickly readjusted my aim as he continued to dart about in a panicky manner. Since when did he have such high agility?

**"Stop moving for a moment, I can't get a clear shot."**

**"Be nice," **Jiū ordered.

**"Aeolus-gē! What did I just tell you about not killing him?"**

I refrained from reminding her that she'd only said not to kill him with an overload of giants.

**"STOP AIMING AT MY FACE, DAMN IT!"** Wei Bo yelled, attempting to run away from me as he lifted his shield in front of himself, though the real threat was coming from behind. Not that he noticed.

**"I said I'm not!"** I denied, trying not to laugh as I let my arrow go. It stabbed itself into the stomach of a giant which had been following after Wei Bo while he raced around, not even bothering to pay attention to the monsters. I quickly peppered the monster's stomach with the rest of my arrows, and then sipped on a stamina potion as Wei Bo finished it off. He didn't spare me a glance before he hurried into the next fight.

**"You're welcome, Huffy-dì,"** I finally sulked while he continued to ignore the fact that I'd just helped him. Then again, it was my fault he'd been in danger in the first place.

**"Don't call me dì! That sounds gross!"** he fumed.

**"Okay, Huffy."**

**"Don't call me that, either!"**

**"Would you both shut up? I'm trying to concentrate!"** Avila snapped, glaring up at me as I flew overhead. She hurriedly returned her focus to parrying the blade of one of the giants, and dashed forward to slice at its leg.

**"I second that,"** Dib concurred in annoyance as he looped around behind the enormous monster and hacked away at the back of its left ankle—the only part he could reach.

I'd been surprised that he'd agreed to train on giants. For fear of the tiny boy getting stepped on, I'd tried to find something else, but he'd stopped me. Unlike so many months ago when he'd been so excited over fights and then nearly died from fright every single time, it seemed his confidence was genuine at last. But that may have simply been because I wasn't there for him to run to anymore.

Giving him a small, worried glance—one he didn't seem to notice, or perhaps he ignored—I circled back around and sighed slightly, attempting to keep my spirits up. My eyes landed on Wei Bo again. **"He's the one jumping to conclusions,"** I replied at last, **"just because I **_**happened**_ **to be pointing my bow in his general direction! He shouldn't have been**–**"**

**"Sorry to interrupt your extremely important argument,"** a seventh, unexpected, and very worried voice suddenly cut in over the channel, **"but we need you guys to come back to the city as fast as you can."**

My eyes widened with a swirling mixture of surprise and anger as I realized who it was. How in the world had Lolidragon gotten into our team chat? I'd thought only team members could enter. Was there some way to force her out of it?

After my conversation with Jiū, Lolidragon was one of the last people I ever wanted to speak to again, _if_ ever. It had taken all of my self control to keep myself from murdering her the last time I'd seen her several days ago before my team and I had left to train together at the giant-filled cliffs several miles east of the city.

**"Why do we have to come back?"** Dib asked, pausing in his ankle-chopping and looking a bit confused. **"I thought we'd finished all our work. Or did Yu Lian give Al more things to do?"**

**"Just come back here!"** she snarled. **"We'll explain once you arrive!"**

**"Geeze, it was just a question. No need to be so grumpy."**

**"We'll be back in an hour or so,"** Xiu Chen said, and Lolidragon disappeared from the chat.

Though I was extremely reluctant to leave the gully, even with my arrows all gone, I obediently walked with the others back to the city, wondering why Lolidragon had sounded so worried. Then again, maybe she was just trying to be tricky, as usual. I doubted I'd trust her again for some time yet.

Slightly less than an hour later, we were filing into one of the largest meeting halls of the central tower, and the members of the Odd Squad—still sans Prince, it seemed—Dark Phantom, and that one tattoo-faced, pokey-haired warrior Gui had introduced to us whose name I couldn't remember all turned in our direction, anxiety smothering their faces.

"What's wrong? Why have you called us?" I asked, looking at each person in turn as we came to a stop. Apparently Lolidragon's worried tone hadn't been pretend.

"Fan is leading an army to attack Infinite City," the unknown warrior informed quietly. "They'll be here in around six or seven hours."

I stared at him for a moment, wondering if that announcement was supposed to make sense. It didn't, in several ways.

"Who's Fan?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He was one of the three leaders during the Grand Melee," Dib explained, tilting his head back to look up at me. "Remember how the teams were all clumped into three big groups? Nan Gong Zui here was one leader, and that tiger guy another, and Fan was the third."

"Oh," I said, feeling relieved that Dib had unintentionally answered two of my questions. I gave them an apologetic shrug. "No, I can't remember what happened during the competition. I'm sorry."

"How could you forget something huge like that?" Lolidragon asked with a tiny frown.

"Why's he attacking the city?" Wei Bo cut in, thankfully saving me the trouble of having to explain myself all over again like I had with so many people already.

"He doesn't like Zui," Doll answered, sighing slightly from her chair. "They're rivals."

"The city… is being attacked by an army because of something as trivial as a rivalry…?" I stared at Nan Gong Zui in utter disbelief. What in the world was the matter with these people? This was just a game. How ridiculous could they get, starting an entire war with one another for some reason like that?

When Nan Gong Zui's face fell into one of extreme offense at the word "trivial", Doll added, "Fan doesn't like Prince-gēge very much, either. Since he's the city lord and all, it adds to Fan's motive for stealing the city."

Was that continuation supposed to make me see all of this as less idiotic? If anything, that made me think this Fan person and his battle was even more pointless than I had initially.

"It was several days ago when we received the news that Fan was coming," Yu Lian said, "so the city as a whole is fairly prepared, and you don't have to concern yourselves over those matters. Since the time for Fan's army to arrive is nearing, we called you back for the battle, so spend the remaining hours getting ready."

She looked over the five of my teammates, but then surprised me by suddenly staring at me as well. "Aeolus, I know you're not in the military, but…" She paused when I began to shake my head in refusal for what she was going to say next. There was no way I wanted to take part in a war, much less one being fought for such stupid reasons.

"I don't want to fight. That was the reason I declined joining the military department in the first place," I said, giving her a stubborn glance.

An icy glower settled on her face and she stepped forward with deliberate forcefulness. The sight was absolutely terrifying, but I stood my ground, determined to win against her. "Aeolus, you are not in a position to decline our request for help when the city is in the danger it's in. As a member of the Odd Squad and as one of the city owners, I have the authority to command you in any way I so choose. As one of Infinite City's citizens and a subordinate to the Odd Squad, you can hardly refuse. However, since you are Gui's younger brother, I would prefer not to use drastic measures to change your mind, for his sake, not for yours."

"I've already done what you asked of me and made you a great deal of weapons, armor, and potions," I answered as steadily as I could manage, attempting not to wonder what she meant by "drastic measures".

"And what happened to your declaration of 'we'll help wherever we can'? Are you saying you were lying?" she pressed, narrowing her eyes even further until I was wondering if she could even see me anymore.

Damn, these people were persistent. This was why I hadn't wanted to help manage their city. It was causing me nothing but trouble.

"That was in regard to management positions," I replied firmly, "it wasn't a loophole for you to use when—OUCH!"

Whirling around to look for the source of the sharp, stinging pain in my shoulder blade, I glared furiously down at Lolidragon. She waved a fistful of tiny black feathers at me, then threw them at my face. Reaching a hand around behind myself, I rubbed my feathered skin through the holes in my leather top. There was a large bald spot interrupting the thin lines of plumage running across my back. "Why are you ripping out my feathers?" I demanded angrily, hoping they would grow back soon. Since when had she been behind me, anyway?

"Cooperate, or else I'll pluck every single one of your precious little feathers!" she threatened, stabbing her finger at my nose. "There's no time to stand around here and argue until you agree, stupid! We don't have enough archers for the city defense, so you're gonna help us whether you want to or not!"

"Why should I involve myself in Nan Gong Zui's battle for superiority over this Fan person?"

"Because, it isn't just Zui's battle anymore!" she yelled, grabbing a lock of my hair and roughly tugging on it until I slapped her hand away. "All the rest of Infinity City has been pulled into it, and we've got to fight, or we'll lose the city, and there's no way I'm gonna let that prissy man get his mits on the Odd Squad's property! If you don't wanna fight for Zui's sake, do it for Gui or something!"

"Why are you so reluctant to help us?" Ugly Wolf asked quietly in the silence following Lolidragon's words. I clamped my mouth shut in a refusal to explain myself. As if I would blurt out such personal things in front of a large crowd of complete strangers. Regardless of how I was on companionable terms with several of the people, I was nowhere near comfortable enough to tell even them. Jiū, Dib, and possibly Gui—fine. But definitely not the rest.

Lolidragon lobbed one last glare at me, stomped over to her team, grabbed Gui by his shirt front, and dragged him back to my team and I. "Convince him!" she ordered, pushing us both toward a nearby doorway.

"Let's get the rest of you organized," Yu Lian suggested to the others, and they were promptly herded outside. I stared after them, and then glanced at Gui, not feeling at all prepared to suddenly speak to him. We'd been plenty friendly with one another as of late, if one could call it that, but that didn't mean I was okay with having a spontaneous heart-to-heart talk. He didn't look very enthusiastic over the idea, either.

Gui sighed slightly and turned in a very reluctant manner toward the door Lolidragon had shoved us at. Giving one more longing look in the direction of where everyone had left, I followed after him, closing the small meeting room's door behind myself. A very long stretch of silence took place, and I glanced awkwardly between Gui and the stone floor.

"I guess I'm supposed to be saying something convincing," he mused. Sighing again, he leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. "So, why _are _you so reluctant?"

"I don't like violence," I muttered, resting myself on the closed door as I continued to stare downward. "It reminds me of him," I answered quietly, feeling somewhat surprised that I'd said it so easily.

"I assume you're talking about father, but he has nothing to do with this," Gui pointed out, tilting his head to one side as he looked me over.

I laughed lightly, briefly shaking my head at him. "Says the person who hasn't lived with father and his constant torment for his entire life. You have no idea what it was like, so please, don't say such things so casually as if you're completely understanding of what I've been through."

Anger flashed across Gui's eyes, and it seemed as though he was about to yell something, but he looked away, forcibly calmer than before, and nodded. "No, I don't understand," he said carefully, "but I would appreciate it if you would stop talking to me as though you're the only person who suffered while we were growing up. My childhood was nowhere near wonderful, either. All the damn pressure to be perfect every single second, I could hardly even…"

Gui paused and took a deep breath, letting his head fall back to rest on the wall. "Okay, we're getting off-topic. Not a good place to be."

His eyes darted about the ceiling for a moment, and then he stared at me with a guarded expression. "Don't think I'm calling you wimpy or anything like that, because I'm not, but you're plenty fine with killing monsters, and the pain level is only thirty percent of that in real life. So, well, um, I know getting injured still hurts and all, but–"

"If I was afraid of pain, I wouldn't have bought Second Life," I interrupted, smirking slightly at his perplexed frown.

"What's the problem, then?" he asked.

Exhaling slowly, I went back to staring at the patch of wood floor between my boots. "Monsters are just part of the Second Life program, it's not like I'm actually hurting them whenever I train. However, these are real people we're talking about killing. I don't want to hurt anyone," I whispered. "I know it may not seem like a big deal to you or other people, since it's not like I'll really be killing them, but… but that doesn't mean they don't feel pain.

"The thought of… being like _him_, of hurting people," I said, my breath quickening as I pressed a hand to my eyes. "I don't want to be anything like him… but sometimes I reflect on how I've behaved, and I wonder why in the world I acted like that. Whenever I lose my temper over tiny, insignificant things, and when I get angry with people when they don't do things the way I want them to be done, and how judgmental and condescending I am… I see him in me and it makes me so sick… It makes me so sick."

Pressing both hands to my eyes as hard as I could, I gritted my teeth and tried to beat down the urge to cry. But, before I knew what was happening, Gui's arms were around me and he wordlessly hugged me with all his strength. Whether out of shock at his actions or the fact that he was squeezing me so tightly, I suddenly couldn't breathe. The unexpected onslaught of brotherliness caught me completely off-guard. It had been the one and only thing I'd ever wanted so desperately from him, but now that I had it, I wasn't sure how to deal with it.

"You moron," Gui snapped. My eyes widened in surprise and I stared at the side of his head, wondering what he was so angry about all of the sudden. Without letting me go, he continued, "Eleven years may have passed since I've last been around father, but I can say without a doubt you're nothing like him at all. Everyone deals with anger issues, and annoyance with other people at some point or another."

He leaned away from me and slapped his hands on either side of my face. "You need to stop being so pessimistic," he scolded. Sighing slightly, he continued in a softer tone, "You've got plenty of prominent, positive traits that make you completely different from him."

"…Like what?" I inquired as he proceeded to squish my face. Were my cheeks really so fun to mess with? Dib always seemed to be yanking on them, and now Gui was smooshing them as well.

"Well, for one, you're hopelessly compassionate," he answered, smiling slightly. "And you're kind, and selfless, and whiny, and silly, and embarrassing, and obnoxious, and childish, and–"

"Okay, okay, I get it," I grumbled, cutting off his ongoing list of "positive traits". Since when had I been whiny? _He_ was the whiny one.

He laughed for a moment, smiling warmly as he finally let my slightly-sore face go, and grabbed my shoulders instead. After a few minutes of silent staring, a hopeful look slipped over his eyes. "So, do–"

"No," I interrupted.

Gui briefly glared at me, but quickly replaced it with another bright smile. "Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"If you don't want me to tell all of your embarrassing childhood stories to Jiū, you'll agree to fight," he threatened with a dark scowl.

I thought for a moment, wondering to which embarrassing moment he was referring. "I don't have any of those," I muttered, raising an eyebrow at him.

He made an almost inaudible "tsk" noise, and glanced away, lips pressed together in annoyance. Apparently the threat had been empty. I wouldn't have cared very much if he'd told Jiū something, anyway. As long as Wei Bo didn't get wind of it. He was already picking on me enough.

"Okay," he sighed and stared at me again. "Well, what about this; what would you do if someone was attacking Jiū?"

"Stop them," I answered at once. "Though she would probably beat me to it. She's taken self-defense lessons, and can get pretty fierce."

"What about Dib? Would you help him if he was in trouble?"

"Of course," I answered again, somewhat reluctantly. I could see where he was going with this.

"What about someone you didn't even know? A stranger on the street who you just happened to be passing by when they were getting mugged or something of that sort?"

"Yes… I would."

"If so, why are you contradicting yourself and refusing to fight alongside an entire city of people who need your help?" he finally asked.

Darn it.

Stupid perspectives.

I stood silently for several minutes and finally sighed, looking back at him, determined not to give in so easily without gaining something in return. "Get Yu Lian to hire more people into the supply production department so I actually have time for other things."

Gui blankly gazed at me and suddenly laughed at my terms, shaking his head in amusement. "Deal," he agreed, still laughing slightly as we left the meeting room to head outside. He glanced at me while we headed for the tower's main entrance. "Though, you know, there are actually several people in that department."

"Then why does it seem as though I am the only one who ever does any work?" I asked, frowning as we stepped into the bright sunlight and directed our steps toward the north gate. "Even with my teammates there to help me, the lists Yu Lian gives me are so long, it takes forever for us to work through even one of the tasks."

"Well," he muttered, shrugging slightly, "there are different sections in that department; one for people who make melee items; one for magic; one for archery—that's the one you're in, and yes, you're the only one so far—one for things like furnishings; one for supplying the city restaurant with ingredients, and so on and so forth. But, at the moment, most of Infinite City's citizens are in the military. Once the population expands more, I'm sure Yu Lian will be able to hire more people into all of those departments. They're all understaffed, really, not just the archery section.

"Our finances are pretty tight, especially with the preparations for this battle, so just be a bit understanding with Yu Lian and her decisions. Though she seems cruel for having you work alone, we don't really have any funds for hiring more people just yet."

"Well, she could take my pay and use it for a second worker," I said. "I rarely buy things, and I've been hoarding my money since I first started playing. I have quite a bit saved up, and my team's expenses aren't very large, either."

Gui laughed again. "She'll like that offer, I'm sure," he murmured.

He and I fell silent as we approached the northern gate, and the mass of people came into view. I looked about myself with rising apprehension, searching the crowds for my teammates. I couldn't see them anywhere, but the Odd Squad, Dark Phantom, and several other people from various teams turned to watch us walk toward them, and Yu Lian smiled with relief at my presence. As Gui and I stopped beside the teams, I stared down at her. "I need arrows. I used the last of mine earlier."

She gestured to a man I didn't know. "Legolas is the one in command of the archers, he'll be able to supply you with some before the battle."

I expectantly looked to him instead. "Ah, yeah," he said with a nod. "Come with me, we'll get you situated." He led me to the city wall and waved a hand toward the many wooden barrels lined up at the base. "Take as many as you think you'll need."

Kneeling down beside the nearest barrel, I pulled out an arrow and looked it over. One of the hundreds I'd made. One of the hundreds which were going to be used to kill people.

Sighing slightly, I quickly selected several dozen more and stored them in my quiver. Pulling out my longbow, I strung it and looked back to Legolas. "Where shall I go?"

"On top of the wall, all of the archers will be up there," he explained and walked away toward a large stone stairway built into the wall. I reluctantly followed after, nervously worrying my finger across my bowstring. When we reached the top of the steps, my nausea rose to a whole new level as I ran my eyes over the enormous, steaming vats of boiling tar they had lined up at regular intervals.

What a horrible way to die, thirty percent of the pain or not.

Legolas positioned me amongst the other archers and I silently stood where he'd left me, staring at the green land outside the city walls. Several hours passed in strained stillness, and a cold dread settled in my stomach when Fan's army finally appeared on the horizon, marching steadily toward Infinite City.

I pulled out an arrow ahead of time and fitted it onto my string, watching as they approached. All of those miserable, pitiable people, coming to fight for such a stupid reason as some man not liking another… I doubted I'd ever understand why they'd chosen to do such a thing. There were so many other more positive, and far more interesting ways to spend gaming time than going to war.

But they didn't care, obviously.

I smirked slightly when Prince popped into my head. With as much as he loved fighting, I wondered how disappointed he was going to be, missing out on all of this. Oh, well. Gui would always be there, ready and willing to be murdered.

It took nearly half an hour longer, but all too soon the army was arranging itself outside the wall. Their loud leering and shouting was as unsettling as the mere sight of their forces. But most unsettling of all was their facial expressions. The excited, energized smiles they were all wearing as if they were about to do something extremely fun.

I didn't have long to observe them. The battle started before I even knew it had. The air was abruptly filled with raw-throated bellows, the soft whistling of arrows, the sharp twangs of crossbows, the sizzling of magical spells, and the metallic clashes of swords. Setting my jaw, I raised my bow, leaned over the edge of the parapet, and aimed for the exposed neck of one of the people dashing about on the ground far below. Taking a deep breath, I tried to block out all of the noise and let my arrow go, eyes closed against the sight which followed. The shrieks of pain, not only from the man I'd shot, but from all of the other people being injured on the ground and there on the wall around me, made bile rise up my throat.

Before I could hesitate, I pulled out another arrow, aimed and shot, falling into rhythmic movements as I depleted my supply of arrows far more slowly than I would have liked. All of the sounds and sights slowly melted together as I focused all of my attention on simply keeping myself from throwing up when several warriors rushed forward and tipped the tar vats, pouring the thick, broiling black goop down onto the ladders the opposing army had set against the wall. A torch was then put to the dripping tar a moment later, setting the ladder and quite a few people on fire.

I was going to need a very, very long break from Second Life after this…

Some amount of time passed—I couldn't tell anymore—and suddenly my arm was being yanked on. Blinking my eyes back into focus, I stared at the anxious face of some other archer who'd been standing beside me.

"We have to retreat, didn't you hear?" he asked wildly, pulling me away from the wall and hurrying me toward the stairs. I let him drag me along, not really caring what was happening at that point, and concentrated on keeping myself from collapsing. He and I stumbled to a halt when we'd gone through the gate to the central tower where everyone had retreated, and I glanced behind myself, watching while the Odd Squad and the others blocked the entrance to the tower when the army spilled in through the destroyed city gate.

Jiū ran up to me a moment later and I smiled with relief that it seemed she was okay. She collided with me, wrapping both her arms and wings around me in a tight embrace. I shakily put my arms around her as well, but then stumbled backward, blinking as tiny dots swam in front of my eyes.

"Oh, great," I muttered as her hazy, dimming face looked up at me in concern. Falling to one side, my hands slipped off her shoulders and I fainted at last.


	37. His Contradictions

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

"I can't believe he fainted, that light-weight," Wei Bo muttered.

"Leave him be, he didn't do it voluntarily," Xiu Chen reprimanded quietly.

"No one _else_ fainted."

"Give him a few good punches and he'll probably wake up," suggested a voice I hadn't heard in quite some time. Prince must have returned from the Eastern Continent at last. I wondered if he'd been able to fight in the battle, after all.

"Try it!" Lolidragon urged in a very eager tone. Didn't she ever lay off? She'd been annoying me since the moment we first met, and I was quite tired of it. In fact, I'd passed "tired" a very long time ago.

"WHA! PLEASE, WAIT, YOUR HIGHNESS!" Gui yelled, and there was quite a bit of stomping and the sound of people rushing about.

Thin arms suddenly wrapped protectively around my head, and Jiū angrily ordered, "DON'T YOU DARE HIT HIM!"

"Okay, fine! But he better wake up soon, I'm getting bored," Prince grumbled, his boots retreating a few steps back from where he'd advanced to beat me into awareness. Several relieved sighs sounded out in the silence afterward. Prince was probably the only person I knew who would immediately resort to punching when waking someone up. Already having known Jiū was beside me, I hadn't been worried.

"Was it really so bad up there on the wall?" Ugly Wolf asked.

There was a sharp, metallic clanking of armor as someone else moved. "No, not really," Wicked answered. "I hadn't thought so, anyway. It wasn't any worse than it was everywhere else."

"Maybe the reason is low blood pressure. He never eats, after all," Doll said.

"Is that even possible in a game?" Yu Lian wondered. "It's not like eating is really necessary, as long as you drink potions."

"It _is_ necessary!" Doll and Prince both corrected her at once. I nearly laughed at their indignation, but stayed mute and instead lifted a hand to rub at my tired-feeling eyes.

"Shhh! He's awake!" Xiu Chen exclaimed.

I didn't bother to tell her I'd actually been awake for quite some time, listening to their conversation. I slowly blinked upward at the mass of faces wearing varying levels of curiosity, annoyance, and worry as they looked down at me. A cool hand was placed to my forehead and I glanced toward its owner. "Are you okay?" Jiū asked slowly, eyes wide with anxiety.

"Not particularly," I mumbled, not making any effort to sit up just yet. I was too dizzy. It seemed as though I'd been moved into the tower while I was unconscious, so at least I wasn't laying on the ground outside.

"Sheesh, Twig. Always causing problems whenever you can, huh?" Wei Bo grumbled, flopping himself down onto the stone floor to sit beside me.

"I could say the same to you," I replied, smiling slightly. "I can't begin to count the times you've started arguments with me about incredibly pointless things."

"You do, too!" he countered, punching my arm.

Putting on a serious air, I grabbed his shoulder and used it to sit up. He looked somewhat reluctant to allow me to do so, but let me, anyway. "Of course," I said thoughtfully, fighting to keep my face straight as I settled myself into an upright position and attempted to quell the wooziness which came with it. "It is my duty as your older brother to pick on you at every opportunity. Just as it is your duty as my younger brother to be irritating to no end, with which you are doing a very thorough job. What else are siblings for but fighting with one another for the amusement of the initiator?"

Wei Bo's mouth dropped open in outrage.

"What, am I wrong about your motives?" I asked, giving in to a tiny smirk. Before he had a chance to retaliate, I looked upward toward Prince. It seemed that Gui's frequent romps of hysteria over Prince's absence were finally at an end. Probably to be replaced with his equally irritating romps of joy over Prince's presence…

"Welcome back."

"Thanks," he replied, smiling hesitantly.

"Aeolus," Yu Lian called. I looked at her instead. "Thank you for agreeing to fight, though you were so against it," she said stiffly. "I hadn't known this would, um, happen."

I stared at her a moment, not really caring anymore that I'd fainted. As long as I wouldn't be forced to fight again in the future.

"Neither had I," I replied, and ran my eyes over the other people standing around me for whatever reason. The Odd Squad, a few members of Dark Phantom, two women I could vaguely remember seeing somewhere at some point, both of whom seeming to be completely occupied with staring at Prince, two men I'd never seen before, two people I'd seen at X University—Jing and Yun Fei, or something along those lines—and my team… minus one.

"Where's Dib?" I inquired, turning my head around in case he was behind me for some reason. A blank wall returned my searching with stony silence. I turned back toward the others, feeling somewhat afraid. "He didn't die, right?" The respawn point had been deactivated, I remembered, meaning he'd be in a different city if that was the case.

"No, he's just outside," Avila answered and I smiled in relief at the news. "He said he wanted to help fix the city gate, so he didn't come in with us."

"Speaking of the gate," Yu Lian said, turning away and yanking a somewhat frightened-looking Prince along behind herself, "you have plenty of things to do other than stand around. As do the rest of you!" she snapped. "Just because the battle is over doesn't mean you can relax!"

Gui gave me one last tiny glance before running off to follow his teammates. **"Don't forget to talk to Yu Lian about what I said earlier,"** I reminded, staring after his retreating back. A brief wave of his hand was all I received in response.

I felt a bit jealous when he slipped up to Prince's side, smiling happily at the elf and seeming as though he'd barely even heard me. I'd gotten used to having Gui there with me so often over the past month. Now that Prince was back and Yu Lian had them focusing all the closer on Infinite City's affairs, I doubted Gui would have much time for me anymore. But I tried to ignore the loneliness. I'd been living without Gui for over a decade, I supposed I could do so again. It wasn't as though I'd never see him again, anyway.

Slowly rising to my feet, still using the reluctant Wei Bo as my support, I looked toward the open doorway, wondering what Dib was doing. Jiū gave my hand a squeeze and I questioningly glanced down at her. "I should go help the rebuilding of the gate, too," she said, sighing slightly. Her silvery eyes darted between mine. **"In the mean time, I think you should talk to Dib. I'm worried about him."**

I nodded hesitantly, relieved that she'd suggested it. I'd been wanting to, but I wasn't sure how she would feel about my doing so. Dib had barely even looked at me—or anyone else, for that matter—since he'd spoken to Jiū and I. Perhaps he was just trying to distance himself for her and my comfort, but it was making me increasingly uneasy. I'd already seen enough of the explosive aftermath of bottling up feelings for too long, and didn't want it to happen all over again.

I wasn't sure what I'd say to him, or if it would really help the situation, but I didn't want to leave him to sort things out on his own, either. With all that had happened, I still wanted to be there for him if he needed me.

We made our way outside and walked toward the northern gate where a large group of players were working to restore the wrecked area to how it had been before the battle. Carefully stepping over a large, splintered beam and countless bits of brick, I came to a halt, watching Dib as he worked alongside the others. His normally lively persona was completely subdued, a vacant look in his eyes, which had rarely been without an amused gleam.

Taking a beep breath, I walked toward him as the rest of my team went to join in with the workers. Dib gave me one surprised look before quickening his pace while he dropped a large broken brick in a pile to one side and hurried back to the gate to get another. I wordlessly observed as he proceeded to walk back and forth several times, and I wondered when he was going to stop. If he was going to stop.

"You could at least help clear the rubble," he finally muttered when he walked past me for what had to be the fiftieth time, "instead of just standing there."

I fell into step beside him and obediently picked up several bits of rock. "Could we go somewhere to talk?" I asked quietly, turning to head back to the rubble pile.

His progress faltered for a moment, but he continued immediately, staring down at the ground. Once he'd thrown his armload onto the rubble pile, he briefly stopped. "I've had enough of talking," he whispered, turning to go back to the gate again.

I didn't follow, but stayed where he'd left me, staring hard at the mound of shattered rock. Carefully placing what I'd been carrying onto the pile, I moved out of the way of the other people who were working, and went back to watching Dib's repetitive movements.

**"Has our friendship become one-sided on my part?"** I finally questioned, feeling deeply hurt that he seemed to want nothing to do with me anymore. I'd never dared to assume that he'd be completely fine in such a short amount of time, but I'd thought that I'd always be the one he'd confide in whenever something was bothering him, no matter what. It was like he'd given up on me in my entirety, not just on a romantic level. But I was determined not to be pushed aside, even if my efforts made him angry.

**"Al, you know that's not it,"** he replied, shooting me a thoroughly miserable stare before tossing his armload of rocks onto the pile and coming to stand beside me at last. **"I told you I wouldn't be bothering you with this anymore. Stop prying, and just leave me alone."**

Crouching down, I looked him in the eye for a long moment, then held out my hand. He didn't move to take it. "Please… come with me?" I begged, stretching my hand out further. "Please?"

"Why can't we speak here?" he asked, completely ignoring my hand and keeping his eyes locked with mine.

"There are other people here," I explained.

"Shouldn't that be a good thing?" he continued softly, his eyes narrowing slightly. "What if we go somewhere alone and I can't hold myself back? What'll you do then?"

"I'll punch you or something, I suppose," I answered seriously and he smiled in disbelief, laughing lightly.

Several silent moments passed and his little hand slipped into mine at last. With relief, I took him up in my arms and stretched my wings to each side, shaking them out and lifting us into the air, over the city and into the sky. We flew for nearly an hour, no particular destination in mind, nor did we speak to one another to decide on a place. It didn't matter where we went. It had never mattered to us, I supposed.

I let us down to a large oak tree and settled onto one of its wide branches, surrounded by the bright green leaves and warm air, sunlight filtering down on us. I seated myself several feet out on the bough, facing the thick trunk, while Dib leaned against it, staring out toward the leafy dome over our heads. He sighed, smiling nostalgically. "This place reminds me of where you and I first met in-game."

"You're right," I breathed, looking about myself properly. It did seem quite similar, though we were nowhere near Sun City and there were no angry bears in sight, thankfully. And this forest was more open and airy than that dense, dark wood where we'd met.

"Do you remember where we first met in real life?" he asked hopefully, staring intently at me as he rested his head on the tree trunk and relaxed himself.

"The office," I replied slowly, wondering why he'd asked something so obvious.

Confusion swirled up when he wordlessly shook his head. I waited a moment to see if he would explain, but he didn't say anything more, seemingly wanting me to remember on my own.

We'd met before he was hired, then? My entire life prior to my high school graduation was ruled out straight away; I'd been tutored at home with hand-picked, scholarly-type angry, old geezers, who my father thought were more qualified for the job—in other words, more under his control at such a close proximity—than teachers at schools.

Directly after that came my four years at the university my father had chosen for me. But I'd never befriended anyone there; everyone in my classes seemed to hate me for some unknown reason, so I'd left them alone. Their distance had allowed me more focus on my studies, so I hadn't really cared, anyway.

I paused while I continued rolling those years over in my mind. Now that I thought about it, there'd been one person who'd attempted to speak to me on numerous occasions during the first two years. He'd been so annoying, never seeming to hear my dismissals and ambushing me in the library, in classrooms, and in random spots around the campus. He and I had never exchanged names, and I couldn't even remember what he looked like, but he seemed like the most likely person.

Frowning in displeasure, I looked back to Dib. "Six years ago," I started and he laughed, a happy smile finally on his face. "That relentlessly irritating person from my economics class who wouldn't leave me alone no matter how many times and ways I asked?"

"We were in more than just economics together, you know. And I was _not_ irritating, you jerk," he digressed, suddenly glaring at me and crossing his arms. The similarities to the Sun City wood were growing, I thought with a tiny grin. "I was only trying to befriend you, and my persistence to include you in the class just so happened to be as deep as your stubbornness to be by yourself."

I stared at him a moment. "You were irritating," I repeated, shaking my head at his denial.

Afterward, I paused again and returned his glare with more fury than he'd given me. "You jerk!"

"Don't talk like me," Dib ordered, but I ignored him.

"Now I can't believe even more that you didn't tell me who you were when we first met in-game. I'd thought knowing each other for a few months before you told me was cruel of you, yet you and I have known each other for six years, and you still kept it from me for so long."

"Would you still have agreed to be my teammate if I'd told you?" he asked quietly and I fell silent, seeing his point. Knowing how I'd been back then, I most definitely would not have agreed. It was the fact that he was someone new and different that drew out my curiosity and interest, leading to my consent for his company.

If he'd told me, I would have left him. He was someone my father knew, after all, and keeping Second Life from my father had been one of my top priorities at the time. I'd thought Dib was someone my father would never have known, eliminating that particular threat and allowing me to relax.

"Exactly," Dib said into the stillness that had built up. "I didn't want you to feel any more uncomfortable around me than you already did, so…" He shrugged and I looked away, not really knowing what I was supposed to say in return. The conversation had gone in an entirely different direction than I'd thought it was going to go, and I needed time to catch up with all of the new discoveries.

Taking a deep breath, I glanced at him again. "I'm–"

"Don't apologize," he interrupted, leaning on the trunk again and staring past me toward the leafy ends of the tree branches. "Stop being so nice to me."

"You want me to be mean?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow in bemusement.

"Yes… and no," he muttered. "I want you to be indifferent… but I want all of your affection. I want you to leave me alone, but I want you to always be with me… I want you to be happy with your fiancée, but I don't want to let you go… Full of contradictions, as usual," he said softly.

"I don't know what to do anymore, Al," he whispered. "I hate this indecisiveness. I've never really held back very much before, and now I'm suddenly required to draw a line somewhere, but I never know how much is too much. I feel guilty simply looking at you, not knowing if I accidentally looked for too long.

"This would be so much easier," he suddenly snapped, "if Jiū wasn't such a damn kind person. If she was mean and horrible, I wouldn't feel guilty in the slightest if I tried to steal you away. But, but she's so…"

"Not horrible at all," I quietly ended for him and he nodded, looking extremely angry at the fact.

His anger abruptly plummeted back into sadness. "I feel like such a terrible person whenever I get jealous and think badly of her after she's been so tolerant toward me." He sighed deeply, and finally turned back to me after staring at the wall of leaves for so long. "Why's everything have to be so complicated? Why'd it have to be _you_, of all people?"

I wordlessly watched as his eyes closed, spilling tears down his face. The urge to comfort him was rising up again. "Dib," I called, but he made no sign that he'd heard me. I scooted myself closer to him on the branch and put a hand on his head, slowly running my fingers through his curly hair. "I-is there anything I can do? If there's something, please, tell me, I'll do it if I can…"

Dib leaned forward and pulled himself against me, shaking his head. "No, there's nothing you can do," he answered. "Everything you haven't given me and I want from you isn't mine to take. Even if you did give some of the things out of pity for my situation with no feelings involved, I'd only hate you for it. Just knowing that you care for me in some way makes me happy to a certain extent," he murmured, chuckling slightly.

He sighed again. "I think I just need a break from you and everything else. I can't stand being around you guys every single day."

"…Does that mean you're not coming to the wedding?" I asked hesitantly. I didn't want to force him to come if he'd only be miserable the whole time, but it would still have meant a lot to me if he'd chosen to do so.

"I don't know," he replied. "Gimme some time to think about it."

"Okay." Wrapping my arms around him, I hugged him tightly, gazing vacantly at the tree trunk behind him and wishing there was some way to make everyone happy. It seemed no matter the scenario, someone was going to wind up getting hurt.

Nearly ten minutes later, Dib leaned backward and looked up at me. "Goodbye for now."

My arms suddenly didn't have anyone in them. I stared down at the rough tree branch where he'd just been sitting, unsettled at his abrupt logout. His break from me had started much sooner than I'd been expecting.

Feeling thoroughly confused at how I was supposed to handle everything, I stood up, walked to the edge of the bough, jumped off and flew back toward Infinite City. There was little of the night left to spend, and I still had one other person I wanted to speak to before I woke up. If I could find him, anyway.

An hour later, I landed inside the walls of the central tower and strode inside, glancing about the large, dim hall. There were many people bustling about, but not the person I wanted. **"Prince, where are you?"**

**"Yu Lian-dàsăo is dragging me around the city to get me up to speed on things…"** he replied, sounding very grumpy. **"Why?"**

**"I want to ask you something,"** I said, walking back outside, smiling at his suddenly hopeful tone and its unspoken screams for a rescue from the terrifying magician. **"Could you spare a moment?"**

The elf was silent for a long while, and I was starting to wonder if he was going to answer. **"No,"** he replied at last. **"She's glaring at me for just PMing someone while I'm supposed to be paying attention to whatever it is she's talking about."**

**"I see," **I murmured. **"Well, I'll ask you over a PM, then, so I don't interrupt your tour. I was wondering if you were going to attend my wedding? It's next weekend. Jiū invited the whole Odd Squad, and also a few members of Dark Phantom."**

He was silent for even longer this time, not that I hadn't been expecting it. Even without being told, I could see many reasons why he would refuse.

**"I, um, don't know… I think I might, er, be… busy. Yes, in fact I think I'm very busy. Very, very busy. Can't avoid it."**

**"Really? You're not able to spare even a few hours?"** I pressed in amusement at his reluctance.

**"Nope,"** he promptly refused.

**"And why not?"**

**"I said I'm busy!"** he snapped. **"Geeze, you and Gui are both so annoying!"**

**"You're too afraid to come even with Wicked and Wu Qing there as your excuse?"** I asked, ignoring his little remark. **"They both already have the information, you could just attend with them, since it wouldn't be strange of you to accompany them. **

**"And speaking of Gui Wen, it's not like he'll notice who you are and cause a scene, you know. He's gone this long as your professor without recognizing you, I highly doubt he will even if you attend, Feng **_**Lan**_**." **

Prince made an incomprehensible sputtery noise at me, then fell silent again. Yu Lian was probably doing something unspeakably horrible to him for not paying attention to whatever it was they were doing.

Smirking, I walked away from the tower toward the northern gate to find Jiū, hoping the week would pass by quickly.


	38. The Final Dismissal

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

I stared at the outside of the front door of my father's house. It had been quite a while since I'd seen it, but it still looked just as imposing as it had before. So pointlessly tall and wide, as if my father had been expecting a parade of elephants for company. I doubted I'd ever understand why he was so obsessively focused on being impressive. Jiao's family was rich, too, but at least their doors were normal-sized.

Giving a tiny glance to Delun—the only person who'd come with me—I stepped up to the door. Jiao, Mei Rong, Chen, and the rest of the Lin family weren't arriving until tomorrow, Heng was still doing whatever it was he was doing, and everyone else hadn't arrived yet from T City and wherever else they were coming from, though they'd timed it so they were arriving in an hour or two, so at the moment it was just Delun and I.

I wasn't sure why we were here, anyway, since I didn't live here anymore. It seemed to make more sense to hold the wedding at the Lin estate. But that was just my lowly, unimportant opinion.

Regardless of my confusion and lack of reliable backup, I grabbed the ornate door handle and pushed it open before I could attempt to talk myself out of it again. All of the Robot Maids were there to greet us, of course, lined up in their perfect, spotless rows. Delun looked extremely disgruntled at the sight when several of them hurried forward and took our luggage while we stepped through the doorway. Much like I had so often in the past, he seemed to want nothing more than to snatch back his bags and take them in himself.

"Zian-xiānshēng, Delun-xiānshēng, the northern parlor has been readied for your arrival," announced some butler or another—they all seemed to look the same to me—as he bowed and proceeded to lead us through the entry hall.

I kept my eyes glued to his back to avoid looking at the front staircase. I doubted my fears would be realized, but somehow, I felt that if I looked there would be some of my blood still stuck to the steps. Or perhaps my father may be standing at the top, like a hawk watching us enter his territory. It was easier to watch the back of the butler, whatever happened to be on the steps.

He led us along the shiny, spotless hallways of the house, then directed us into the allotted room, bowing himself away when he said he would retrieve us some tea.

Delun stared at the empty door for a moment, turned to look about the spacious, decorative room, and halted his eyes on me. "No wonder," he mused darkly, and strode off to look out one of the large windows framed by heavy red curtains.

I didn't bother to have him explain his words, and instead sat myself on the nearest squashy, red couch. There were too many meanings he could have had, and I didn't particularly want to hear any of them. I hoped he would have enough sense to behave himself and not start fights with me during our stay. I certainly wasn't feeling up for a fight with him or anyone else.

Two hours and a very large amount of tea later, the butler suddenly materialized in the parlor doorway again. I couldn't help but wonder how he always got himself to be so sneaky and soundless when walking about the house. Perhaps walking so quietly was one of the things he was trained to do.

"Zian-xiānshēng, your guests have arrived. Shall I show them in?"

"Yes, please," I replied, feeling as though a bit of my energy, which had been sucked out of me when I'd stepped through the front gate, had been restored at the news. Delun's presence was a comfort to a certain extent, but having more of them there as well made me feel much better.

Standing from my seat, I smiled when a pile of familiar people filed into the room, their disorderly mannerisms earning them a stifled, disapproving sniff from the butler.

"This place is as stuck-up as I remember," Gui Wen commented, frowning in displeasure as he ran his eyes over the room. "If not more so… Hey, Zian."

"Hey." Stepping forward, I gave him a quick hug. He was definitely the largest source of relief in the room. It was probably a very unsatisfactory visit on his part, much like mine. I'd hardly even dared to hope that he was really going to come, with as much as he hated the place.

I quickly greeted Tian Lang, Yang Ming, and Ling Bin, and then stared in amusement down at the very twitchy-looking Lan. "How nice of you to come, Feng Lan."

She glared at me in return, grumbled something very unbelievable about how happy she was to be there, and a woman popped up behind her. My face echoed Lan's as I found myself looking at the very mischievous smirk of Lolidragon's human counterpart. These next few days were going to be agonizing.

"I'm Long Shui Han. It's so-o-o-o nice to meet you in person, Zian," she simpered, then flopped down onto one of the couches, ordering about a maid to get her tea and snacks; something she seemed very used to doing. Lan, her brother, and Ling Bin sat down as well, seeming to be much more on edge than the energetic woman. Delun looked extremely reluctant to continue sitting there, but didn't move to get up as they greeted him.

Turning back toward the last of the group, I watched as a young, very well-dressed girl scanned the room in a critical manner. "Not bad, not bad!" she chirped, giving me a wide smile. "Not anywhere near as big as _my_ house, but still very nice. Hello, Aeolus, my servant!"

"Hello, Doll," I muttered. Her demanding behavior suddenly seemed very appropriate, given our surroundings. She hurried over to sit with the others, and was followed closely behind by Tian Lang and another woman, who I assumed was Yu Lian.

Gui Wen suddenly grabbed me, leaning on my shoulder and staring at me with wide eyes. "Zian," he whispered urgently, "did you invite Prince? He refused to tell me, and he wasn't at the airport, though the rest of us agreed to meet there. But he's coming, right?"

Lan shot me another brief glower from her seat, her murderous intent quite clear.

"Yes, Jiao and I did invite him," I affirmed, looking at the door instead and feeling more interested in knowing where Heng was, rather than the location of a person who was already present. "But he said he was too busy to attend, I'm sorry." It wasn't a lie, I hadn't said he wasn't actually there. But it was Lan's secret, not mine. And I didn't particularly want to die some horrible death Prince would have definitely put me through if I let it slip. Anyway, I wanted Gui Wen to figure it out for himself.

My poor brother looked like he was about to burst into tears at the news, and he let me go, nodding in an extremely depressed manner. He turned to join his teammates on the couches, slouching and dragging his feet the whole way. As he lowered himself onto a blue armchair, Tian Lang gave him a few pats on the back and pushed a cup of tea into his limp fingers. Apparently he'd been looking forward to seeing Prince quite a bit.

Yet another situation where I had no idea what to say to make him feel better.

Sighing softly, I made to join them, only to pause as another call of "Zian-xiānshēng," interrupted me before I could get there. Looking over my shoulder, I stared at the maid standing in the doorway. "Your father wishes to see you."

Abruptly filled with terror, I continued to stare at her, feeling as though I'd just been called by an executioner.

"Zian," Gui Wen said, and I glanced at him as he quickly stood up, looking equally terrified over my summons. "S-should I come with you?" he asked, setting down his teacup and stepping out from behind his chair.

"He wishes to see Zian-xiānshēng alone," the maid quietly added.

Gui Wen stopped beside me, questioningly looked me in the eye, and ignored the maid's words. I took a deep breath and shook my head, though I wanted very much to agree. "I'd better go alone. He'll get angry if I don't, even if it's you, I suppose."

"I don't care if he gets mad," Gui Wen grumbled, "he can rant and rave all he wants. I just don't want you to get hurt again. After what he did last time, who knows how far he'll go."

"Well," I said, smiling slightly, "at least there aren't any staircases in his office." Holding out a hand for him to stay put, I walked toward the door by myself. "I'll be fine, see you in a bit."

"At least keep his desk between you both!" Gui Wen yelled after me as I left the room. "You'd better call for me if he gets violent, or else I'll beat you up, too, for being so submissive! And I'll get Dib to help me!"

My amused laugh at his threat died before it had a chance to escape, and I strode quickly through the hallways, up a stairway and to his office, halting outside his door. Somehow, the thought of seeing him again didn't scare me as much as it would have in the past. Certainly, I was still frightened, but being away from him for so long had given me a bit more confidence toward dealing with him. He'd only hurt me so much because I'd let him. I wasn't going to be so passive this time. Or so I hoped.

It was much easier to visualize such things ahead of time, than really act them out.

Quietly opening the door, I walked inside, forcing down my fear. He looked as he ever had while he sat properly behind his large desk, blandly staring at me when I stopped several feet away and gave him a bow. He lifted a hand, placed it atop his desk and slid a red envelope in my direction. I glanced down at it in surprise, then looked back up at him, wondering what he was doing. He made no effort to explain himself.

Several silent seconds passed, and I then took two steps forward, grabbed the envelope, and retreated back to my spot of safety out of his reach.

"You may leave," he abruptly dismissed, busying himself with a tea set on the corner of his desk.

I raised an eyebrow in bewilderment. That was all he wanted to do?

"If I may ask, why are you giving me this now instead of tomorrow?"

"I will not be here," he answered promptly, pouring himself some tea and leaning back in his large chair again. "A matter at work has cropped up, and I–"

"You are not coming to the ceremony?" I continued. Wouldn't that go against all of his self-inflicted rules about saving face? He was so unpredictable.

He looked extremely angry at my interruption, but quickly composed himself. "No, I am not. I have already paid my respects to the Lin family, there is no point in my attending."

I wasn't sure if I wanted to be relieved that he wasn't, or disappointed at his disinterest. I settled on the latter, and clutched the envelope tighter in my hands, trying to think of some way to convince him. "But I want you to come, father. It would mean a lot to me if you did."

A smirk flashed across his face while he emptied his teacup and set it down with a tiny clink. "Well, your useless sentimentality means nothing to me. I have many more worthwhile things I must see to, rather than watch your little wedding. Now leave. I am busy.

"Oh, one more thing," he added after a moment, briefly glancing at me before shuffling through the papers on his desk, unearthing a leather-bound scheduler. "Now that you are healed I expect you at work from Monday morning onward as usual. Although you are no longer living here, you are still my successor, and I will not stand for any laziness."

"Yes, father," I answered softly, hoping Jiao wouldn't be too disappointed that any chance at a honeymoon was just erased.

Watching as he began to pretend I wasn't there anymore, I took a deep, calming breath. There was something I'd been wanting to ask him for a very long time. I doubted very much that I'd like the answer, but whatever. There was little else he could do to hurt me anymore.

"Father, why… why did you allow me a day off last summer?"

He froze as I spoke, looking positively furious. Briefly glaring at me, he gripped his fountain pen tightly, then threw it at the top of his desk. At least he hadn't stabbed me with it or anything.

"It was…" he started, but paused, looking away from me angrily. "It was eleven years to the day that you drove my son out of the house," he whispered and my eyes widened slightly. "I could hardly stand to see you that morning, do you really think I would put up with you being so close for an entire day?"

I inhaled slowly, eyes darting about my feet. So that was his reason for the spontaneity… Now that I thought about it, he was never at home or at work on that day of the year. Apparently he hadn't had the chance to leave that time around, and sent me away, instead. Well, I hadn't been expecting much of anything different.

"You really hate me that much?" I inquired quietly, smiling hopelessly at him.

"Yes, I hate you. Now get the hell out of my office," he commanded icily and picked up his pen again. I didn't move, feeling as though I'd just gotten glued to the thick, ornamental carpet underfoot. Was there really no chance at changing his opinion of me? It wasn't like I'd meant to drive Gui Wen away, but it seemed no one cared about that particular fact.

Seeing that I wasn't leaving, he stood from his chair, picked up his teapot, and lobbed it at me before I could react. I should have placed myself farther away from him, I realized a moment later, watching blankly as the shattered pot fell to the floor from where it had connected with my forehead. Very, very hot tea was dripping off my hair, mixing with my tears and a warm stream of blood from where I'd gotten cut on a sharp fragment of the daintily painted ceramic. He had such good aim after throwing things at me for so many years.

The office door crashed open seconds later, and Gui Wen furiously stormed inside. I looked at him over my shoulder, quickly wiping off my tears and feeling extremely surprised at his abrupt entrance. How long had he been standing out there?

"Gui Wen," my father breathed, and an uncharacteristic, bizarre-looking expression bordering on fondness replaced his usual glower. He strode out from behind his desk and walked past me like I wasn't even there. "Welcome home, my son."

Gui Wen, looking rather sick at the sudden greeting, evasively sidestepped him and grabbed either side of my head, closely inspecting the new injury. "What the hell, you moron! I told you to be careful, and now look at what he did!"

"I _was_ being careful, but he caught me by surprise," I muttered, feeling rather annoyed with myself for letting my guard down.

"Shut up," he snapped, turning to look at our father. "You bastard, what'd you do that for?"

He smiled, and I was suddenly very happy he'd never shown that look to me before. It was more frightening than Yu Lian's.

"My, my, Gui Wen. Watch your temper. You are questioning my disciplinary methods? The stupid boy was being obstinate, and I had to punish him, much like any adult punishes a disobedient child," he explained very matter-of-factly as if throwing pots of boiling tea at people was completely normal.

Gui Wen shot him a murderous glare, grabbed my arm, and proceeded to drag me from the room.

"Gui Wen," he called. "I wish to speak to you as well before you leave."

"I have nothing to say to you!" Gui Wen bellowed, pulling me along faster. I stumbled after him, pressing my free hand to my forehead while I tried to keep my footing on the stairs he was yanking me down. Less than a minute later, he shoved me through the parlor doorway and pulled my bloody hand off my bloodier head. After a fearful glance, he quickly put my hand back on. Several people stood up off the couches in alarm.

"You're such an idiot, Zian, letting him do whatever the hell he wants like that! Hey, maid person!" Gui Wen called angrily, waving over one of the maids standing in wait. She hurried forward. This was the first time I'd seen one actually look concerned.

"Get me a first aid kit!"

She thankfully didn't pause to bow, and ran from the room to get one. Gui Wen roughly pulled me to the couches and stopped me beside Tian Lang. "Wolf, could you take a look at him? He got hit with a teapot. A full one, by the looks of it."

Tian Lang nodded and, much more gently than Gui Wen had, took my head in his hands, using a clean napkin from the snack tray to wipe off the tea and blood. Gui Wen fluttered anxiously about by his elbow, still muttering about how stupid I was.

"Looks like it's not very deep," Tian Lang observed, "but you should have it checked out at a hospital, since you might not be fully recovered yet from when you, um, fell down the stairs last month." He pressed a new napkin to my forehead once he'd gotten it somewhat cleaner. Though the cloth was smooth, it hurt quite a bit touching the burnt skin, but he dipped a third napkin in a glass of ice water and dabbed it across my forehead, giving me a bit of relief.

I made a noise of agreement, not that I had any plans to go to a hospital, and watched as the maid returned, first aid kit in hand. Tian Lang took it from her with a word of thanks, then withdrew a small bottle of antiseptic and a bandage. I refrained from giving him a very annoyed glance.

I was going to have a giant bandaid on my forehead for my wedding.

How nice-looking.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I barely noticed as I crumpled up the envelope I was still carrying in my hand, and tried my hardest to ignore the stinging pain as Tian Lang smudged a bit of the disinfectant on the cut. He stuck on the bandage a moment later, and patted my shoulder. "There you go, should be fine for now."

"Thank you," I said, cracking my eyes open to look up at him. Glancing about the others, I smiled faintly at their worried expressions. "Sorry for the commotion."

Gui Wen slapped my back. "Stop apologizing for what's not your fault."

Doll suddenly stood up, looking extremely angry. "How could he do that to my servant?" she demanded, balling her hands into fists. "I'm going to go tell him off, that dastardly evildoer! Luring you off by yourself just so he could do that! Come on, everyone! CHARGE!"

Eyes widening in surprise, I grabbed her outstretched arm before she could dash out the door. "For your own safety, please, leave him be."

"I agree," Yu Lian murmured, pulling the fuming girl back onto the couch.

After I was certain that she wasn't about to go stampeding off to find my father, I carefully removed my tea-soaked suit jacket and draped it over the back of an armchair before sitting down. Leaning backward, I silently watched while the others hesitantly picked up the threads of their conversations, but didn't bother to join in.

"Zian-xiānshēng."

Damn it all, I despised that title.

"Yes?" I replied wearily, looking toward the butler standing at the door.

"The last of your guests have arrived. Shall I show them in?"

"Yes, please," I answered at once, abruptly standing up in anticipation and hoping with all of my might that it was Heng. Relief and happiness flooded me as he came around the corner, followed by his three forcefully calm brothers. He'd decided to come after all.

Heng's round eyes widened when they locked on my bandage and he hurried forward, grabbing my poor head yet again. "AL, YOU IDIOT! I TOLD YOU TO FIGHT BACK IF HE HURT YOU AGAIN! STUPID! WHY DIDN'T YOU LISTEN TO ME? WHAT–!"

"Please, stop yelling!" I cut in, attempting to detach his hands. "When did you say that, anyway?"

"TWO WEEKS AFTER HE PUSHED YOU DOWN THE STAIRS!"

"I had amnesia, moron! You know I can't remember anything from back then, including your visit, so stop bringing it up! AND I SAID STOP YELLING, YOU'RE SO OBNOXIOUS!"

"MY OBNOXIOUSNESS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS SITUATION, SO DON'T TRY TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT!" he countered, glaring at me and forcefully shaking my head back and forth. "EVEN IF YOU CAN'T REMEMBER, I STILL TOLD YOU! ANYWAY, IT SHOULD BE A NATURAL REFLEX TO PROTECT YOURSELF!"

"I DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO REACT PROPERLY!" I bellowed, punching his shoulder. " And I leaned away on reflex from the teapot he threw, so it wasn't too bad! Tian Lang already looked at it and said so! See the bandaid? He put it on!"

Pausing in his head-yanking, Heng turned to look at the physician, wordlessly demanding an answer. "Um, I did," he confirmed, looking extremely concerned about how Heng seemed to be determined to twist my head off. "He'll be fine."

"You better be fine, Al, or else I'll stab you later in-game! You jerk, always making me worry!" he snapped, shoving me back into my armchair before he threw himself into the one beside it and nearly fell over sideways with as much force as he'd used. He slapped my arm before pouring his brothers some tea in a very angry manner. I held back my laughter as I watched, feeling all the more relieved at his normal behavior. What was normal for him, anyway.

Huffing slightly, he finally looked around at the others and seemed mildly surprised that they were there as if he hadn't seen them until just then. "Oh, hi, everyone."

"H-hey, Dib," a few greeted in somewhat frightened tones.

Doll, who'd been carefully inspecting Heng's younger brothers while he and I were screaming at one another, suddenly stood up again with an outraged expression. "_You're_ Dib?" she questioned, looking him up and down. I wondered if she was angry that he was so huge compared to his Second Life character. Those two always seemed to be competing with one another, and Heng definitely had her bested in the height department, if only in real life.

"I am," Heng said smugly, sipping on his tea while he confidently gazed down at her.

She stared at him for a long moment, then exploded into very loud tears, twirling around to grab Yu Lian and yelling, "It's not fair!" in a choked voice.

Heng glanced at me, looking startled and a bit guilty at causing the little girl's outburst, but I shrugged it off, not wanting to get involved. Even if Heng was as young as he looked in Second Life, he would have grown eventually, anyway, so I wasn't sure as to why she was so upset about it. She _was_ a member of the Odd Squad, so I supposed I shouldn't be too confused over her strangeness.

As everyone started chatting around me, I quietly stared down at the squished red envelope still clutched in my hand and attempted to flatten it back out, three words relentlessly ringing in my ears, and drowning out the others' voices.

I doubted I'd ever be able to forget the moment my father said he hated me.

* * *

_If it was an unfamiliar custom to some of you—red envelopes containing money are presented to people on holidays and special occasions (in this case, it was a wedding gift.)_


	39. One More Secret

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note –** I feel so mean in so many ways for writing this x-X_

* * *

I picked my fork at the top of my way-too-large steak sitting on the way-way-too-large plate sitting on the way-way-way-way… the large dining table in front of me. Dinner that night was a very subdued affair. Quiet conversations, if any, broke out rarely as the food was steadily eaten. Only my father would be able to take a happy event such as a wedding and completely turn it around, leaving everyone with the feeling like they'd just attended a funeral. Perhaps tomorrow, when the wedding would finally take place, would be brighter, but at the moment, everything looked extremely dismal.

Why couldn't I have just taken the damn packet from my father and left his office when he told me to leave? Why did I have to ask such stupid questions when I already knew how he was going to respond? I was always making situations so much worse with my useless prying. Now everyone's mood had been ruined, and it was all my fault yet again.

Someone suddenly shifted in their seat. Everyone, including myself, expectantly looked up to see who it was. Yu Lian looked like she wished she hadn't moved, but a polite smile twitched onto her face as she glanced toward Gui Wen. "H-how is your, um, music-writing going, Gui?"

It seemed he was attempting to take as much time as he possibly could chewing on his bite of food, finally swallowing nearly a minute later. "Great, given that I don't have any prior experience," he answered quietly, shrugging one shoulder and immediately going back to his dinner.

"And how is Prince's singing practice progressing?" she furthered.

"Fine," he replied bluntly, looking annoyed that his dinner was being interrupted with questions. He must have been in a very bad mood not to be taking the opportunity to burst into a long string of praises about how wonderful he thought Prince and his singing was.

Yu Lian continued to stare at him, a disappointed frown replacing her smile, but she quickly switched her attention to Ling Bin instead. "And how are your preparations coming along?"

"Good," he mumbled uncomfortably.

She then took a breath, looking somewhat desperate as she turned to Shui Han, but the other woman beat her to it. "The outfits are coming along really nicely, too."

I was somewhat irritated that the conversation wasn't going anywhere, not that I was really helping it progress, but listening to them talk around me drowned out my dark thoughts, if only slightly. The silence was making me restless. Coming back to my father's house wasn't agreeing with my mental state. Or the mental state of anyone else, it seemed. The happy, excited faces everyone had been wearing only a few hours ago were completely erased.

"When's your concert going to be?" Heng asked after several minutes filled with nothing but the sounds of chewing.

"In a few days," came the scattered reply from several people. Heng nodded and didn't attempt to ask anything else. The awkwardness was driving me insane. Weren't these people usually loud-mouthed and energetic? Was there really nothing for them to say, even with what had happened earlier that afternoon?

I stared down at my probably-cold-now steak again, wishing I had an excuse to get up and leave. It wasn't like there was anything more interesting than this to do, but I didn't want to sit there any longer.

The dining hall's door swung open a moment later, and everyone once again looked up, only to immediately look away in fright and disgust when my father strode into the room, several of his underlings on his heels. He couldn't possibly have thought he was going to join us for dinner, could he have?

"What a lively group you all are," he remarked blandly, running his sharp, black eyes over his frozen house guests, a bored expression settling on his thin face. "Well, I hope you will all enjoy the remainder of your stay. I must be off now, I have much work to do. Have a pleasant day tomorrow!" he ended with a short wave of his hand before he turned back around and left as abruptly as he'd come.

Looking for a moment at the spot where'd he'd been, I stood up and hurried after him, determined to ask him once more if he would be able to stay for the wedding. So much for not prying anymore.

"Zian, you moron! Get back here!" Gui Wen snapped, and I heard him jump to his feet to chase after me. I ignored him, and the other set of footsteps I could hear following, as I tried to catch up.

"Father!" I hastily called, sliding around a corner to see him stepping out the front door, making no sign that he'd heard me. "Father!" I repeated, dashing across the entry hall and out the door. "Father, please, can you really not stay?"

"We have already had this little chat, and I will not waste my precious time repeating myself. Go back in the house," he ordered, giving me an annoyed glance before he walked down the front steps.

I waited until he'd gotten to the bottom before hurrying after him, staying at a distance where he couldn't grab me, or, if he threw anything, I'd be able to dodge. His briefcase looked like it would hurt quite a bit more than a teapot.

"Please, stay!"

"I SAID I WILL NOT!" he roared, whirling around to face me. I halted my descent of the steps just in case he was about to attack, my heart pounding wildly. "Are you really so dependent on me that you cannot even have your wedding by yourself, you stupid boy? I do not wish to attend, and that is all. Now go back in the house."

He turned away, and I continued down the steps, feeling panic rise in my chest as words came spilling out. "Not once have I ever asked you for anything before, and I have done everything you have ever asked me to do no matter how difficult, and I have tried my hardest to please you, yet you… YOU CANNOT EVEN SPARE ME ONE DAMN DAY?" I screamed at him, clutching my fists together. "FATHER–"

"SHUT UP!" he bellowed, stepping back toward me with a murderous glare. He hadn't seemed to notice that he'd dropped his briefcase along the way. That was probably the only reason I decided to stand my ground, rather than jumping back up the steps to where Heng and Gui Wen were watching.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!"

I looked at him in bewilderment over the unexpected command. What in the world else would I call him? Was he expecting me to start referring to him as "president" like his employees did?

"Wha–"

"Do not call me that anymore," he snarled, coming to a halt right in front of me. "It is sickening enough to have to see you again, but to have to hear you call me your father for all of these years…"

He took several deep breaths, and the color in his face lowered slightly. Lifting a hand, he pointed at the front door. "Go back in the house, Zian."

I didn't move, but instead continued to stare at him. "Father, what–"

"YOU ARE NOT MY SON!" he yelled, pushing me backward, and I fell, landing hard on the step behind me.

Glancing about myself for a moment in a daze, I looked back up at him, having no idea what was going on anymore. "I know I am… I… I know I am a disappointment to you, but…but–"

His hands were suddenly around my throat and I heard Gui Wen and Heng yell something as they ran down the steps to intervene. "YOU ARE NOT MY SON! YOU ARE NOT! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO LOOK SO MUCH LIKE _HIM_? WHY? WHY DO YOU? I HATE HIM, AND YOU ARE ALWAYS REMINDING ME OF HIM, YET YOU REFUSE TO LEAVE ME BE!"

Attempting to peel his fingers off, I shook my head and wheezed, "How am I supposed to control how I look?" What the hell was the matter with him? Why was he being so irrational?

The situation took on an even more chaotic turn when Gui Wen and Heng both tried to rip him off me, then my father's employees joined in on the brawl and tried to stop those two, mainly Heng, from tearing my father limb from limb, and all the while my father was trying to choke me to death, continually yelling things I could barely understand.

It was all over in a matter of seconds, though it had seemed to take hours. My father, surrounded by the impenetrable wall of his employees, was taken back to his waiting car, and Gui Wen and Heng stood in front of me protectively. I watched as he turned around once more, fury in every movement as he whispered, "Leave before I come home tomorrow night. I never want to see you again," and he then got into his car with his employees and they drove away.

"That guy deserves to be locked up for the rest of his miserable life!" Heng yelled, whirling back around and hastily bending over me. "Al, are you okay?"

"Why the hell did you go after him?" Gui Wen demanded, shaking his head in disbelief. "He already refused, and you knew he'd only get mad if you pressed!"

"I just want him to stay," I faintly replied, tightly gripping Heng's arm as he helped me up off the step.

"Well, the rest of us don't," Heng snapped, brushing the dirt off my suit.

He let out a long sigh, throwing another glare in the direction of where my father's car had disappeared. "Geeze. I'm so glad I don't work for him anymore, he–"

"What?" I interrupted, and Heng abruptly looked like he'd just lost all of the blood in his face.

"Al, don't get mad," he warned, guardedly backing away from me. I doubted I wasn't going to get mad, after how he was behaving.

"I, um… he," Heng mumbled, "he fired me last month, like he, um, threatened us with…" When Heng noticed my outraged expression, he held up a hand while I stepped toward him. "No, no! Wait a minute, Al! I was going to tell you, but–"

"But _what_?" I angrily cut in again. "Damn it, Heng! How could you keep something so important from me? You're always going on about how you hate keeping secrets, but nowadays you never tell me anything!"

Heng anxiously shook his head in denial. "Al, I just–"

"I don't want to hear any more of your excuses." I shot him a scowl and turned away, swearing furiously under my breath. My muddled thoughts fell back to my father and what he'd been yelling.

"For goodness sake, does he expect me to go about wearing a mask just because I look similar to you?" I muttered at Gui Wen, then paused in renewed confusion. My father didn't hate him. Who was he talking about?

"Zian," he whispered, eyes briefly darting to meet mine. My heart sank when I saw his actions. Why was he suddenly behaving like Heng?

"He wasn't… referring to me…"

"What are you talking about?" I asked hesitantly.

"H-he was telling the truth," he answered shakily, steadily becoming more pale with each word he spoke. "You're not…"

My eyes widened in shock at his implications, and I both wanted him to continue and didn't dare to listen to the rest. It wasn't possible.

"You're not his son," he continued quietly. "You're his wife's—_our_ mother—and his… his younger brother's son. He… he mentioned it to me a few times in the past… After–"

I slowly shook my head, feeling horrified. "Please, stop."

Gui Wen stepped forward and held out his hands to me. "Zian."

Brushing him aside, I went back into the house, barely even hearing his calls for me to come back. Mind completely and mercilessly blank, I walked as quickly as I could down the hallway, up the stairs, and into the dark guest room I was sharing with Delun, shutting the door behind myself.

I didn't move any further into the room or turn on the light, but simply stood there, staring at the shadowy wall opposite the door, wondering why I was even bothering to breathe anymore. What had I been working toward my entire life, if not to please the man I'd thought was my father? I didn't know how to deal with the news that it had all been pointless. All of the people who were important to me kept being so secretive, and I was done with it.

The door behind me briefly opened, then shut again with a click of the lock. "Al?" Heng called cautiously as if he was afraid I might do something reckless in my current state. I wanted to quite a bit, really. In fact, there was little more I wanted to do at that moment than to go berserk and destroy everything in the room. But I had no willpower to do anything. I didn't care anymore. Or, more honestly, I didn't want to care. It hurt too much.

"A-Al," Heng repeated, moving to stand in front of me. His eyes darted between mine, his face pale with fright at my lifelessness. "Al, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to keep what happened from you for so long. Y-you were dealing with so much, I didn't want to add even mo-more problems, please," he whispered, stepping forward to pull me against him. "I'm so sorry… I won't do it again. Please… please, don't hate me… don't hate me. I'm sorry. Don't hate m-me," he pleaded desperately, sounding much more like Dib than Heng.

"I could never hate you," I murmured over his sobs, continuing to vacantly stare at the wall as his body started shaking with the force of his tears. I clearly saw his reasons for not telling me he'd gotten fired on my account. Just like everything else he'd held back from me. It was his business if he wanted to confide in me or not. I was only his damnable best friend, who asked over and over for him to be more honest and open, just as he asked of me. Why would what I want matter?

With a trembling gasp, Heng drew away slightly to look at me again. I shifted my gaze to meet his at last, wordlessly assuring him that what I'd said hadn't been a lie, even if I was furious beyond comprehension underneath my uncaring persona.

His eyes dropped from my face and his cold fingers ghosted over my neck, pushing my blue dress shirt's collar out of the way. He leaned closer, glancing up at me as I hissed in discomfort when he touched my sore skin. "Does it still hurt?" he asked softly.

"Of course it does," I chided. It hurt quite a bit, and in more ways than just physically.

Pain covered his face, like he had been the one that got strangled, when he looked downward again, moving closer until he was completely enfolding me. Tilting his head to one side, he brushed his lips over the bruises I knew had formed on my neck, even without being able to see. I flinched when the light kisses turned rougher as his mouth pressed harder, and I put a hand on his chest. "Heng, that hurts. Stop."

Rather than stopping, I felt his mouth open wider as he placed a trail of kisses over my neck, across my jaw, up to the bandage on my forehead, then he paused, dark eyes once again staring deeply into my own. After a moment of hesitant silence, he slowly leaned forward, questioningly pressing his lips to mine. It was question I didn't answer right away. He didn't give me time to think up a response, anyway.

"I love you… I love you so much," he breathed, kissing me again and again as he repeated himself with increasing passion and urgency, arms tightening around me. It seemed that he'd lost sight of all of the boundaries he and I had placed.

I wasn't sure why I did what I did after that. Perhaps because of a continued desire to comfort him after what I'd unintentionally put him through. A want for myself to be comforted. A wish to save him further injury from my rejections. A hope that I'd be able to clear my mind of all of my frustrations and pain. A lack of energy to refuse him. A surrender to the overpowering sensations taking place. Or perhaps a part of me had simply been unknowingly drawn to him at last. I didn't know.

Whatever my feeble excuse was, somewhere amongst the countless kisses, the echoing confessions, the short respite when he pulled me across the room, and the moment he pinned me underneath himself on my bed… At an unknown point, I began to kiss him back.


	40. The Life of a Father

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note –** I bet the father is happy that I finally gave him a name. This chapter is from his perspective!_

* * *

Ruthlessness.

That was the word my father strategically pounded into me, both verbally and physically until he was satisfied that I would never forget it. Ruthlessness toward other people. Ruthlessness toward myself. Ruthlessness toward anything and everything in my life. According to him, it was a necessity in the business world. I didn't doubt his words for even a second. After all, one needed to be ruthless if they wanted their company to survive and flourish amongst the countless others.

I thrived on his words from the moment I was born. Being male and the oldest of my siblings, I was given the position of his successor at birth. With his urging and my own self-discipline, I steadily hardened myself against the world around me. I took excuses from no one, only justifiable reasons. A lack of proper results, even from myself, was unacceptable, only exactly what I'd asked to be done. Perfection was key in everything.

Not even my two younger siblings were allowed special treatment. My father had given me the responsibility of passing on his values to them, so I became their role model—an example crafted after him. It was difficult at times, forcing them to obey. For one, they were both insufferably stubborn as children. And for another, I kept feeling shreds of remorse as I tried my hardest to shape them into what my father wanted. But, with more time and self-inflicted restrictions on my part, the hesitancy to do my duty soon vanished.

The regret I'd had initially was replaced with a growing sense of vexation as to why my siblings were so unmanageable. Unlike me, they were naïve and weak like little puppies, whose master hadn't broken them yet. Why couldn't they see that my father and I were only doing this to help their future? They were so whiny whenever I scolded them, it was endlessly irritating.

* * *

My younger sister, Liu, was sent off to a private academy for the duration of her high school years, giving me a slight relief that I was no longer in charge of her. My younger brother, Zhong Yu, was kept at home to study alongside me. He was going to be one of the important parts of my father's business, so it was crucial that I continued to have him by my side to keep up my influence on him. Unlike Liu, who was going to be married to her fiancée directly after she graduated, it wouldn't do to have Zhong Yu leave home only to come back even more unreasonable than before.

However, the more time went on, it was getting increasingly difficult to deal with him. As well as having a terrible temper rivaling my own, he was so hopelessly submissive and unsure of himself, constantly relying on me to make the decisions when he should have been making them himself. What good was he if he was going to depend on me for everything? But whenever I tried to correct him, he got angry with me as if it was all my fault he was so indecisive, though I'd been trying all this time to teach him how to be strong-minded and willful.

If he took too long in something and I stepped in to hurry things along, he called me cruel for being so domineering.

If I let him alone and something went wrong, he called me cruel for not helping him when he needed me.

There was never any middle ground with him. For the sake of the larger picture, I took on the role of the tyrant to allow things to progress quicker and smoother, regardless of how angry it made him. I hoped he would be more understanding with time.

* * *

When I was twenty, I got married to a woman of my parents' choosing. Hui Ying was everything I would have chosen in a wife. Quiet, obedient, intelligent, from an impressive family, and very pretty. She was also useful when it came to helping me deal with my obstinate brother, though she did take on a rather more caring and soft approach than I would have when persuading him to do whatever it was. But if I got the results I wanted in a timely manner, I kept my silence for her sake.

Though I initially saw her simply as a one who would provide me with an heir, to an extent I came to care for her and her gentle ways, which balanced out my harshness.

Close to a year after our wedding, she gave birth to a son. My son.

Gui Wen.

He looked just like her, and very little like me. That made me somewhat annoyed, but I soon got over it, since it would be ridiculous of me to dwell on such uncontrollable things. He was extremely adorable, whichever way it was, though I wouldn't have ever admitted to thinking such a thing, regardless of how I knew everyone else was thinking the same.

It was bizarre, all of the unfamiliar feelings welling up inside me whenever I held him. All of those tender feelings I'd thought I'd long-since thrown away to follow in my father's large footsteps. But Gui Wen effortlessly brought them back to me with every little thing he did.

* * *

I stepped quickly down the hallway, hurrying to my bedroom. I'd just gotten home from a very tiring, but very productive as well, two-month-long business trip, and was determined to go to bed immediately. Well, maybe I'd have a bath first.

Actually, the _very_ first thing… A very important thing.

Halting prematurely outside a different door than the one I'd been aiming for, I waved a hand toward the end of the hall. "Take my luggage ahead of me," I ordered the servants who'd been following after. Not bothering to pay attention to their murmured replies, I turned and opened the door as quietly as I could. Shutting it behind myself, I held my breath for a moment, listening for any sounds. None came, so I left the doorway, walked to the large cradle across the room, and bent over it to look down at Gui Wen as he slept.

I simply stared at him for a very long while, feeling somewhat amazed at how big he was becoming. A few more months and he was already going to be two years old. I could hardly believe so much time had passed. It felt like yesterday when I'd first seen him, looking all wrinkly and soggy and splotchy right after his birth, but still just as perfect as ever. My perfect son.

Often I would wonder if my father was as happy as I when I'd been born. Was I so precious in his eyes? Did he love me as much as I loved Gui Wen? What did he think about all those years while watching me grow up? Had I become a man he could take pride in calling his son?

They were all questions, a few among many, that I kept to myself, though I very much wanted to know the answers.

Cautiously running a finger across Gui Wen's fat little cheek, I smiled warmly at him, playing with his fuzzy, black hair for a moment before I reluctantly straightened with a sigh. Returning my face to its original blankness, I left the nursery and continued on my way to my own bedroom. I paused briefly just inside my door to make sure the maids were doing the unpacking properly, then went to take a quick shower.

Half an hour later I was slipping into my bed, rubbing my face tiredly and feeling relieved to be home at last. Hui Ying, who I'd thought was asleep, turned over to look at me, a complicated expression covering her face. I wordlessly gazed back. "Welcome home," she whispered.

"Thank you," I replied, relaxing myself into the blankets in preparation to fall asleep.

She continued to stare at me, rather than going to sleep herself, so I turned to look at her again, wondering what she wanted. She took a deep breath, thin eyes drifting away from me, but didn't say anything for several minutes. My eyebrows lowered in annoyance at not being able to go to sleep. Why didn't she just hurry up and say whatever it was?

"I have something to tell you," she continued quietly.

"It can wait until morning. I am tired," I replied, flipping over to face away from her instead, and began running tomorrow's schedule through my mind. I had a lot to do; going back to the office to see how Zhong Yu had handled things in my absence, and writing up a report for the trip, and speaking to my father, and everything else.

"Kuo Li," she called hesitantly, and I felt her sit up, upsetting my nicely-arranged blankets.

"I said it can wait. Leave me be," I snapped wearily, pulling the blankets back up to my neck and burying my face into my pillow. I felt a bit guilty for getting mad at her, but I was extremely tired after having barely any rest every night for the past two months. Anyway, she should have known I'd want to sleep, rather than talk.

Thankfully, she left me alone after that and laid back down.

By the next morning, I'd forgotten that Hui Ying had wanted to tell me something. But she held me back at the breakfast table, rather than letting me go into the office early like I wanted to do. She looked down at the tabletop for nearly five minutes, making me extremely irritated. I had much more important things to do than watch her stare at a table.

When I was about to get up and leave, regardless of the fact that she still hadn't said anything, she finally looked at me, her eyes shining with anxiety. "K-Kuo Li… I am pregnant."

I stared at her in shock, hardly daring to believe what I'd just heard. Glancing down at her still-flat stomach, I then looked back up at her tearful face, rage roaring through my head. I'd been gone for two months. And before that, I'd been very busy at work for nearly a month, preparing for the trip. Far too busy for doing such things.

Yet…

"And why is that?" I asked quietly, forcing my voice to remain level when I wanted to jump up and flip over the breakfast table. Preferably clobbering her with it somewhere along the way. Though I'd shouted countless times whenever I'd lost my temper, I'd never once gotten physically violent with her before, but it was suddenly sounding like a tempting idea. Should I have been more strict with her for the years we'd been married? I'd been rather lenient. It seemed that had been a mistake.

"Who is the father?" I continued angrily when she didn't say anything.

In response, Hui Ying simply shook her head, tears spilling down her cheeks as she hung her head.

My fist came furiously crashing down on the table, causing her to jump in fright. "I ASKED YOU WHO THE FATHER IS! ANSWER ME, DAMN IT!" I bellowed, standing from my chair. When she still didn't answer, I strode around the edge of the table and yanked her chair backward, glaring down at her terrified expression. With everything I'd done for her, this was how she treated me in return. Sleeping with someone else while I'd been busy providing for her.

Unable to control myself, I drew my hand back to hit her much like I had my siblings in the past, but my arm was grabbed from behind. I looked over my shoulder, and found Zhong Yu calmly looking back at me. "I would appreciate it if you would handle her with more care," he said quietly.

I glanced back to Hui Ying.

She was staring at my brother in relief.

Eyes widening in realization, I looked back again, feeling horrified.

He smiled slightly, obviously amused by my reaction. "To answer your question, the child is mine. You should not have neglected her so," he scolded with maddening superiority in every word. His normally weak, timid countenance had been replaced with a feeling of dominance, as if he'd gotten my wife pregnant simply to spite me.

After a moment of thought, I punched him instead. I'd always been the one with more physical strength, much like everything else.

He fell backward, his nose gushing blood—probably broken, or so I hoped—and I whirled about to look back at Hui Ying, but didn't move to harm her. "You two justify your actions by telling me I was _neglecting_ you?" I demanded. Anger at them was mixing with anger at allowing myself to be so affected by what they'd done. I hadn't thought I'd valued her so much. Apparently I had.

"I WAS WORKING SO HARD FOR _YOU_! AND GUI WEN! TO MAKE YOUR LIVES COMFORTABLE!"

She still didn't reply, and I turned away from her, leaving the room as fast as I could, inwardly screaming as I made my way outside to get in the car waiting to take me to the office.

I never saw either of them again. Directly, at least. They disappeared together less than a week later, leaving me with nothing but a pile of divorce papers and their betrayal weighing down on me. I buried myself in work from that day onward. But Gui Wen was still there, his childish innocence allowing me a bit of relief from the blazing anger.

* * *

A year later, I came home from work one day to discover a second little boy in my house.

Zian.

Even without hearing the house staff's explanation, a single glance told me who he was. He looked so much like Hui Ying, and so much like Gui Wen. But he had _his_ eyes. His father's eyes. The sight infuriated me all over again, and I demanded that he be sent back to wherever he'd come from. But apparently no one knew where that was. He'd been left outside the house without anyone noticing who'd put him there.

So I allowed him to stay and raised him. But not once did I ever think of him as a son. Every time I looked at him, I was reminded of Zhong Yu. Even Zian's personality was the same as his. While Gui Wen was independent, extremely bright, and charismatic, Zian was quiet and meek, following Gui Wen anywhere and everywhere, relying on him for everything.

It was Zhong Yu and I all over again, only Gui Wen indulged Zian's wants, rather than pushing him to be less pointless like I had with my brother. In an attempt to rectify the situation, once they were both older I began to drive Zian to compete with Gui Wen. After all, one performs better when they have someone to work against. But, unlike Gui Wen's brilliance, Zian was disappointingly average. He had to work much harder to achieve whatever Gui Wen had so easily, and usually failed along the way. He'd turned out to be simply a burden.

The frustration was endless, not getting the results I wanted.

Where was the point in where everything began to fall apart? My life had been going so perfectly, I'd planned it all out so carefully. I'd had a wonderful son, a wonderful wife, a wonderful job, and I was content. How had it crumbled so easily?

If Zhong Yu had never been born, I could have gone on like I had and even lived to my full potential, rather than being dragged down by him for so long. If he'd never existed, my life would have been all I'd wanted it to be. But now he was gone, taking my hopes with him and leaving Zian in his wake.

I despised them both for it.

* * *

I found another reason to hate Zian—the influence he had on Gui Wen was not one that I wanted.

While I'd been allowing them to spend time together in a hope that it would drive them both to work harder, it suddenly came to my attention that Gui Wen was becoming a bit _too_ willful. Not that I wanted him to be a mindless idiot who did whatever I told him to do, much like Zian, whose only good trait seemed to be his obedience, though it was also a rather bad trait with as far as he took it, but Gui Wen was beginning to act rather defiant. Skipping out on his tutoring sessions to read books. Dragging Zian along with him. Refusing to do what I told him to do.

I didn't want to do it, but I was going to have to intervene for his own good. He was my heir, I was not going to stand for any distractions getting in his way. Perhaps it was only because he was a fifteen-year-old boy, and he would grow out of it, but I refused to allow him to think he could do whatever he wanted simply because he was my son.

A soft knock on my office door at home interrupted my train of thought. Damnable servants, always interrupting me for stupid things. It was probably tea time or something idiotic like that.

"Come in," I called in annoyance as I leaned back in my chair.

Rather than one of the maids or butlers, Zian slipped inside, carefully shutting the door behind himself and striding up to my desk. He gave me a quick, clumsy bow, then stared up at me with those eyes I hated so much. I looked away before he started talking.

"Father, may I speak to you?" he asked quietly. Though I wanted very much to tell him to get out, I gave him a nod. He looked relieved at my consent, even daring to take a step closer to the front of my desk.

"Father, I was wondering," he continued, just as quietly, if not more so.

I glared at him and he froze, eyes wide and mouth open. "Stop that muttering, and speak normally," I ordered.

He nodded fervently and cleared his throat. "I was wondering," he repeated, louder than before, "about how you were planning on sending Gui Wen and I to a business school."

"And what about it?" I asked tonelessly. If he was going to tell me he wanted to go somewhere else, he was going to regret it. I'd already made his schooling and career path very clear. Much like my father had planned for Zhong Yu and I, Gui Wen was my successor and Zian was going to work directly under him. Assuming he was capable of doing so, with how talentless he was.

"W-well, I know you have it all planned, but Gui Wen… Gui Wen said…" He paused to take a deep breath, looking like he wasn't sure if he wanted to continue or not.

"Out with it," I snapped. How difficult was it to simply _talk_, for goodness sake?

"He said he wants to go into teaching and literature, not business," Zian abruptly blurted out, and I finally looked at him in surprise. Gui Wen was even more off-track than I'd thought he was. Since when had he thought I would allow him to do something as absurd as that?

Standing up, I walked out from behind my desk, passed Zian, and strode out the door. Knowing where Gui Wen would probably be, I directed my steps to the library, Zian walking along behind me for who knew what reason. If he was as much like Zhong Yu as I thought, he was probably coming along to watch Gui Wen get scolded.

Reaching the library, I firmly shut the door behind myself before Zian had a chance to follow. Scanning the scattered, empty tables, I turned to make my way along the edge of the rows of bookshelves. It wasn't difficult to find him, curled up in a chair with some book or another propped open and leaning against his knees. He slammed it shut as he saw me coming, and stood up, gripping it tightly in his hands. At least he knew he was doing something wrong.

"Gui Wen, Zian tells me that you are reluctant to attend the business school I spent so long finding for you two," I said softly, coming to a halt in front of him. His face paled slightly as I spoke. I snatched the book away from him, and looked it over before tossing it on top of a nearby table. "Literature, and _teaching_, was it? You are dissatisfied with inheriting your grandfather's business someday?"

"I don't want to inherit it," Gui Wen answered steadily, defiance shining in his eyes.

"It does not matter if you do not want to inherit it, you are going to, regardless," I corrected just as steadily. "You have been taking advantage of my trust in you and acted rather disobedient as of late, but that will change from now on. You will go to your lessons every day as is required of you, and I will not hear any more out of you about this silly teaching idea of yours. Is that clear?"

After a very long moment of staring, he gave me a nod. "Yes, father," he answered before picking up his book again. "I'm going to put this away," he muttered, quickly brushing past me.

Satisfied, I left the library to go have a little chat over the phone with his tutors. They were also at fault, allowing him too much freedom. I didn't give Zian a glance as I pushed past him out the door. He didn't follow after, and probably went inside the library to see the aftermath of his tattling, I thought, frowning slightly.

After that, Gui Wen and Zian never spoke to one another again, rarely even staying in the same room for more than a few minutes at a time. I was curious as to what had happened between the two boys, who'd always seemed to adore one another in the past, but didn't pursue the subject as they had both taken to their lessons with renewed vigor. That was all that mattered to me.

A month passed, and early one morning while I was eating breakfast, I received the horrifying news from one of the maids that Gui Wen had disappeared during the night. I stormed to Zian's room where he was still asleep, throwing open the door. He sat up, looking frightened when I stopped beside his bed and dragged him out of the blankets. "Where is he?" I furiously demanded, holding the scrawny boy up by the shoulders and shaking him back and forth.

He simply looked confused by my inquiry, so I shook him again as hard as I could. "I ASKED YOU WHERE HE IS! TELL ME!"

Grabbing my wrists in an effort to support himself, Zian gasped and shook his head. "I do not know what you are talking about!"

"GUI WEN!" I bellowed, throwing Zian against the wall. He collapsed on the floor, tears streaming down his face. I stepped to him and pulled him to his feet, slamming him against the wall. "He told you of his ridiculous plans, so where is he? Tell me, you idiot!"

"I do not know!" Zian repeated in terror, attempting to wrench his pajama top out of my grip.

Gritting my teeth, I lifted him off the floor a second time and threw him across the room. Striding up to him where he'd slid to a stop and curled around himself, I took hold of his hair, lifting him up again. "Tell me right now where my son has gone."

"H-he did not tell me, father!" Zian screamed. I drew back my other hand and he shook his head, covering his face. "I AM TELLING THE TRUTH!"

"I do not believe you!" Thrusting my fist forward again and again, I smashed it repeatedly into his shielded face, ignoring his shrieks of pain.

"P-please, father!" he sobbed, struggling hard in my grip. "HE DID NOT SAY!"

His terrified denials only made me angrier. Letting go of his hair, I furiously continued, refusing to cease until he chose to tell me where Gui Wen had gone.

However, even with a lengthy beating, Zian refused to tell me anything, if he even knew anything to begin with. I set many people searching for my son, but he'd covered his tracks thoroughly. That was the first time I cursed Gui Wen's intelligence, and it was not the first or the last time I cursed Zian's meddling ways.

If that stupid boy hadn't been here, Gui Wen still would have been.

Zhong Yu kept stealing away things that were precious to me, even in his absence.

* * *

Eleven years crawled by.

My father died in that time, and I inherited his company, as was always going to happen.

Zian, who I'd named my successor simply because there was no one else, had grown up to become a spineless version of my younger brother. I stayed away from him as much as possible. He seemed content to sit in his office all day long, so I left him there, only calling him when absolutely necessary.

Also, Gui Wen had reappeared at last. Not at home, unfortunately, but at least I knew where he was. An acquaintance of mine who owned a university informed me a new professor had been hired. My long-lost son, who had apparently been studying abroad. The news that he was alive and well was overwhelmingly relieving. Though I was still rather angry with him for leaving, it made me content enough to know that he was okay.

When along came a business trip to T City where the university was, I sent Zian in my place, hoping they would run into one another. Also, because I was tired of Zian sitting about doing nothing but reading reports. Even if he was an idiot, he was going to eventually inherit my company, and needed experience with more than the inside of his office.

But that backfired, and he ended up befriending his employee, rather than finding Gui Wen.

Stupid boy.

It really hadn't helped that the moronic employees at the hotel had accidentally booked two rooms instead of three. Even if Zian was hopelessly inferior to Gui Wen, he still should have had the sense to keep himself above his own employees. But he'd been disappointing in every other way, so it wasn't terribly surprising that he made yet another mistake.

I got to work right away on organizing his wedding. Perhaps having his fiancée around would make him focus on his responsibilities again.

* * *

Zian disappeared somewhere one evening without telling me where he was going. That had never happened before. He'd always seemed to think it was required to get my permission for every little thing. Feeling rather suspicious with how he'd been behaving those days, I waited for him to come home.

He didn't come back that night. I went to have a look in his bedroom, thinking perhaps there would be some sort of clue as to where he'd gone, and found a very interesting little object laying on his bed. A game.

So that was why he'd been so distracted. He was wasting his time on a _game_, of all things.

Early the next morning, he sneaked back into the house, looking as if he thought he was very clever for not being noticed as he slipped up the steps, though I'd been standing there the entire time. He was so ridiculously unobservant.

He refused to tell me where he'd been, and, to put it very lightly, I lost my temper with him. His disobedience was an echoing reminder of Zhong Yu's infuriating behavior, and, before I knew what I'd done, he was laying unconscious at the bottom of the stairs in a pool of his own blood.

I'd gone farther than I'd meant to go, even if I did hate him. Feeling inwardly shaken up by my lack of control, regardless of how much time had passed since my brother and wife's betrayal, I sent Zian away. For some bizarre reason, he wanted to stay, but I refused.

* * *

Slightly over two weeks after I'd sent Zian to live at his fiancées house, that employee of his, Shi Heng, called on me in my office. I didn't particularly want to talk to him, but I let him in, anyway. Seeing him stand in front of my desk so confidently, I had a strong feeling that he was the reason Zian had been so distracted with that stupid game.

"I want to talk to you about your son," Heng informed, anger edging his quietly spoken words. I silently waited for him to continue, hoping he would be finished soon. I was far too busy to listen to him whine about how terrible he thought I was.

"Why did you do that to Zian?" he asked, his face slipping into a look of disgust.

Scowling at him, I inquired in return, "And what business is it of yours what goes on in my home? If you have nothing worthwhile to say to me, you may leave."

"Zian is very important to me," he answered firmly, leaning over my desk and resting his hands on the edges. Rather than feeling angry at him for doing so, I was impressed with his audaciousness. It had been quite some time since anyone had stood up to me in such a blunt way.

"That's why it's my business if you try to _kill_ him, you bastard. All he's ever tried to do is make you proud of him, and you just–"

"Please leave," I interrupted, waving a hand dismissively. "There is no point in talking about such silly things. It does not matter to me if he tries to please me when all he does is make mistakes. He was disobedient, and that is all there is to it."

Heng gave me a furious look, but backed away. "I guess there's really no point in talking to you, huh?" he muttered, turning toward the door.

"One moment," I called, folding my hands together and resting my chin on them curiously. He reluctantly glanced at me. "About where he was that night…"

"He was with me," Heng confirmed.

Smiling slightly, I nodded. "Ah, I had thought perhaps that was the case." Sighing, I leaned back in my chair, wondering why the younger generation was so hopelessly unruly when all I wanted was what was best for them. "Well, I assume that, with as close as you seem to be with him, he told you about my little warning. I ask that you pack up your belongings and leave at once. Goodbye."

He seemed more than happy to do so. It was a pity, really. He would have been quite the ideal employee if he hadn't been so determined to overstep his boundaries. But no matter. There were thousands of others who could easily and willingly take his place.

* * *

The evening before Zian's wedding, I stepped out of my front door, employees in tow, attempting to block out Zian's irritating calls. It had been a month since I'd seen him last, but his mere presence still made me as sick as ever—if not more so, now that I'd seen how close he'd gotten with my son all over again.

Even with my continued refusals to attend his damn wedding—yet another reminder of what I myself had gone through—he was determined to ask, again and again, until I couldn't stand it anymore. The way he called me so pleadingly, the way he looked at me, the way he yelled, the way he moved, it was all exactly like how Zhong Yu had behaved—turning to me for help only when it was convenient for him and ignoring what I'd say the rest of the time—and it was driving me insane.

Even after I'd nearly strangled him, he still had such an expectant look, wordlessly begging me to stay.

I never wanted to see him again, and told him so in a hope that he would finally listen to me. Driving away to the office at last, I clutched at my briefcase, gritting my teeth against the boundless fury eating me away inside. That fury which couldn't be quenched, no matter how much time had passed, it seemed.

I'd lost my wife.

I'd lost my son.

I'd lost my father.

I was on the verge of losing myself, too.

But I refused to let myself become weak and fall apart. I simply had to be harder on myself, throwing myself back into my work, so I didn't have to think about such useless things anymore. Even if everything had been taken away from me over the years, I was determined to keep going, regardless. Even if the only thing I had left to hang onto anymore was the ruthless teachings of my father.

It was enough.

* * *

_The kind of person who blames everyone else for his problems._

_Too bad I really know people like that._

_By the way, the business Kuo Li owns is an airplane company._  
_Two-month business trip = overseeing a portion of the construction of a new airport.  
He was working with the father of the Lin family, who works in architecture and landscaping._

_I actually decided on the airline business while writing chapter one, but never actually got around to saying so… I chose it because it seemed fitting in regard to Zian, much like the symbolism that his wings have. At first, his real life was such a cold and unfeeling cage moving in a direction controlled by another, like an airplane, but in Second Life he can really fly, and with his own power, rather than relying on his father's machines._


	41. Congratulations

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

_**Note –** Wedding traditions in Taiwan… From the information I looked over, they're very similar to wedding traditions in China. So, yeah. I dunno if this is wrong. It probably is. I am completely unfamiliar with their customs, so I sort of mashed something together, but purposefully skipped over a lot, just in case I was doing this completely wrong. xD_

* * *

"Twig, get up."

Groaning slightly, I ignored the call and attempted to roll over, but Heng was in the way, so I didn't.

"Twi-i-i-ig," came the exasperated call again.

"Go away," I muttered groggily, clumsily waving an arm in the direction where Delun's voice had come from, interrupting my sleep. My hand connected with his face by accident. He was a lot closer than I'd thought.

"Oops, sorry."

"Get up, you idiot!" he commanded angrily, putting his hands on my chest and squashing me into the mattress several times. I opened my eyes and stared up at him in annoyance. "Breakfast is ready, and you two are still laying in bed, stupid! Get up and get dressed!"

Frowning, I pushed Heng's limp arm off of me and reluctantly sat up, feeling dizzy. Food actually sounded a bit appealing at the moment. I hadn't eaten anything since… I couldn't remember when. Apparently living off of tea wasn't possible after all. How disappointing.

Delun raised an eyebrow and glanced between the still-sleeping Heng and I. It was a wonder he was still asleep with as loud as Delun was being.

"Why did you two sleep in the same bed? There _is_ another one in here, you know. _My_ bed. Thanks for locking me out of the room last night, by the way. And why are you still wearing your suit? It's all covered in wrinkles now."

"I don't know, I know, you're welcome, because, and oh, well," I mumbled, rubbing my face with one hand. I felt as though I hadn't gotten any sleep at all, and didn't really care about the state of my appearance or if my suit had wrinkles. It wasn't like I was going to be wearing it for the ceremony.

"Whatever. Just hurry up and get ready. I've got to go home, I'll see you later at the house," he huffed and left the room, slamming the door shut after himself.

Sighing, I pushed the warm blankets off myself and stared down at my lap, thoughts of the night before swirling through my head. This visit was not going at all like I'd thought. I hadn't assumed my father… or my… What was he, anyway? My adoptive father? My uncle? That was very weird-sounding, and I settled on keeping "father" as his title, even if he hated it.

I hadn't even known he had a brother. A sister, yes—she'd visited several times with her family for holidays and such before my grandfather had died—but not a brother. Where was he? And where was my mother? What were they both like? Were they as horrible as my father?

Most importantly; why hadn't _they_ raised me?

My father had never spoken of either of them before, so I'd never asked anything about them. I wasn't sure I even wanted to know. Not yet, anyway.

Turning back around, I patted Heng's shoulder. "Wake up." He didn't respond, so I patted him harder and leaned toward him. "Heng?" Seeing that he wasn't moving still, I started one-handedly punching his broad back as forcefully as I could in my sleep-sodden state.

His arm unexpectedly shot out and grabbed me around the middle, yanking me underneath him. He smirked at my yell of surprise and sat himself down on my waist, one hand pressing on each of my shoulders. "Hitting me to wake me up? 'Morning, you jerk."

"Let me up, Heng, we have to go get ready," I said, attempting to push him off so I could sit up again. Even with as healthy as I'd become in the past month, he was still annoyingly stronger and seemed to enjoy flaunting it at every turn. What good was having two arms again if they weren't going to do what I wanted? Stupid piddly little muscles.

"I don't want to," he muttered, flopping himself down on top of me and removing any chance of my sitting up.

"Heng," I snapped, punching the sides of his head while I fought to breathe under his crushing weight. He only laughed at my weak efforts and kissed me on the cheek. "_I_ have to go get ready, at least! Get off!"

"Don't go," he replied, lifting his torso slightly, but keeping me resolutely pinned.

"I have to go! I'm getting married today, in case you forgot," I growled, glaring up at him. Abruptly remembering what else had happened last night, in my guilt I mentally corrected that to "in case _we_ forgot". The fact that he and I hadn't gone any farther than kissing and sleeping in the same bed definitely wasn't something to be relieved about, in of itself. Nothing should have happened in the first place.

"Don't get married," he suggested softly. He was entirely serious.

When he suddenly dipped down to kiss me again, I planted my hand firmly over his mouth and felt heat rise in my face. A repeat of last night was not going to happen. I still couldn't believe I'd done that with him, having been incredibly upset or not. I'd barely even had enough sense to stop him when the kissing had gotten a little too passionate and he'd started undressing me. He'd managed to relieve me of my shoes, socks, jacket, vest, necktie, and belt before I'd halted him in his shirt-unbuttoning and convinced him that I'd simply wanted to go to sleep.

Heng peeled my fingers off his mouth and his eyes narrowed angrily. "Why did you kiss me last night?"

I shook my head, looking away from him fearfully. "I'm not going to make any excuses to you, other than I wasn't thinking straight. It was a mistake, I'm sorry."

"A mistake," he repeated, smiling slightly. Though his eyes immediately started tearing up, he quickly blinked them away, fury quickly replacing his pained look. "I see. Once again, you were just playing with me, never thinking about how I would take your actions… Don't know why I even bothered hoping… What were you doing, using me to make yourself feel better, since Jiao isn't here?" he demanded, pressing me against the bed even harder.

"I don't know," I whispered, covering my face with my hands and wishing he would go away. I had no idea why I'd done it, nor did I want to attempt to figure it out.

Heng abruptly lifted himself up and slipped off the bed. "Well, I hope you got whatever it was you wanted out of toying with me," he snarled, running a shaky hand through his hair. "Always using people however you want and tossing them aside when you're done with them, you're as cruel as your damn father."

My eyes flew open as wide as they'd go with his words. Hysteria filled me and I looked at him in shock. Of all people, I never would have thought he'd be one who'd say something so horrible.

Climbing off the bed, I hurried past him and went into the bathroom, quietly locking the door behind myself. I ignored him as he noisily knocked on the door and apologized for having gone too far. He hadn't gone too far. He was simply telling me what he really thought. I'd asked him to do so, after all.

Anyway, it wasn't like what he'd said was wrong. I'd been thoughtlessly taking advantage of his kindness and tolerance, and had assumed he'd always be there for me to rely on, no matter what was happening.

I wouldn't assume that anymore.

Slowly undressing, I screwed up my face to keep myself in control, and blindly stumbled into the shower. Only when the hot water was spraying down on me did I let myself scream for as long as I wanted, as loudly as I wanted, without caring who heard me. Falling onto the cold, tiled floor, I leaned against the wall and buried my face in my arms, letting out all of the tears I'd been holding back for so long and feeling every bit as weak and useless as my father had always told me I was.

I couldn't handle all of it anymore. Something had to give, or else I was going to snap even more than I had already. I couldn't always be a child who cried when things got difficult. Disappointments and hurt came with life, and I simply had to accept that. If I couldn't, I'd only turn out as an endlessly miserable person like my father, spreading my bad feelings to everyone around me.

Anyway, now definitely wasn't the time to sort everything out. I had a wedding to be in. I couldn't let myself become distracted. Jiao was most important, and she was what I had to focus on from now onward, like I should have already.

I quickly got ahold of myself, taking deep, measured breaths as I fixed my eyes on the steamy glass door of the shower. If I was weak and useless, all I had to do was become strong and useful. However one went about doing that, anyway. I'd figure it out somehow.

Standing up again, I quickly finished washing, dried off, changed my forehead's bandage, and left the bathroom. Heng was on the floor outside the door. He leapt to his feet, looking terrified once I emerged.

"Al, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to say that, please, I'm sorry," he gasped, following me closely while I went to get my wedding clothes.

"There's no need to apologize for being honest," I answered quietly and evenly as I dressed myself. "You should go get yourself and your brothers ready, the ceremony will be starting soon." Finishing as fast as I could, I hurried toward the door.

"Al, wait!" Heng yelled desperately, roughly grabbing my arm and turning me back around. "Don't go, please… You can't…"

Shaking my head, I tried to pry his hand off, but he held on tighter. Wincing as his fingers dug into my skin, I took another step toward the door. "Heng, let me go."

"Don't leave me," he pleaded, not relenting in his firm grip as he dragged me back.

"I'm not leaving you," I answered, steadily looking up at his panicked expression. "I'm not going anywhere. All that is changing is our situation. You have known for a long time that this was going to happen and you said that you would not interfere, so let me go."

"Al, you can't," he whispered, stepping forward and wrapping his arms around me again. "You can't."

Taking a deep breath, I used all of my strength to push him away, meeting his hopeless gaze with one of icy anger. "Stop touching me," I berated coldly, turning away and opening the door, I left him alone in the bedroom. He didn't call me again.

I felt terrible for being so harsh, especially at such a time for him, but I didn't know how else to deal with him. If I was lenient any longer, he'd never stop. If I tried to hold onto both him and Jiao, all three of us were going to be miserable forever. Something had to give and I'd made my choice. We all had to live with it.

It was a very long, embarrassing, yet graciously distracting next few hours as everyone messily piled out of the house to start up the bridal procession—I much would have preferred a small, quiet wedding, but of _course_, my father had to plan an extremely flamboyant one instead—and off we went, collected Jiao from her house, and then pointlessly went all the way back to my father's house where I wasn't living. How in the world was this supposed to work when he wasn't even present, anyway?

The guests had arrived ahead of us and we were met with the loud cheers of random people I knew from work, a lot of people I couldn't recognize, distant relatives I hadn't seen in years, my lone aunt and her family, and even my elusive old friends, complete with their usual fake smiles. That crowd coupled with the entire Lin side of the family and guests were all extremely stressful to be in front of.

At least I managed to lead Jiao into the house without tripping her along the way.

But when I lifted the red cloth from her face, all I could feel was guilt and self-loathing as I gazed into her beautiful eyes, glowing with happiness, trust, and love. This was supposed to be the moment I was also bursting with contentment and glee, and yet while going through the whole wedding ceremony, I could think of nothing but what I'd done and how I was supposed to become a man who was really worthy of being her husband.

By the time Jiao and I were seated at one of the round tables in the dining hall, surrounded by food and guests, I'd finally managed to stick what I hoped was a polite smile on my face. Though it slipped off a moment later when I realized I'd just been married. What a horrifying idea. I wasn't ready to be a husband. I couldn't even take care of myself, how was I supposed to take care of a whole other person?

Well, that idiot Delun managed it somehow or another…

"Are you okay?" Jiao asked anxiously, staring at my somewhat terrified expression.

"No," I whispered, leaning toward her slightly and staring at her instead, attempting to fill my brain with her face so everything else was dimmed. It wasn't working very well.

"The past day has been incredibly chaotic…"

"Delun-dàgē said you had another fight with your father, is that why he isn't here?" she inquired quietly.

"We had two, actually," I sighed, straightening again to look at those around us. "And yes, that's part, I suppose. It's complicated. I don't even really know what's going on."

Anger flashed across her face for a moment, but she quickly subdued it with a tiny frown and shake of her head. "Tell me about it later?"

I nodded, smiling faintly at her before turning my attention to the food sitting in front of me. Having her there with me again was extremely soothing, even if I was still inwardly beating myself up. I wasn't at all sure what I was supposed to do about what Heng and I had done. I certainly didn't want to tell Jiao I'd nearly had sex with him; I knew how she would react to hearing such things, all the more so after I'd just assured her that I had no feelings for him.

But, scared as I was, I didn't want to keep things from her either, especially not such important occurrences… Would she be able to forgive me if I told her? Would I be able to forgive myself, for that matter?

What a mess I'd made yet again. It was going to be a very long time, if ever, before I would stop feeling so thoroughly ashamed of myself.

Nearly half an hour later, Gui Wen suddenly sat down beside us and let loose a long sigh. "I'm so jealous of you two," he pouted, crossing his arms and tilting his chair back on its back legs. "Getting married, psh."

Laughing slightly, I gave him an amused glance, feeling all the more relieved for another distraction. "I'm sure that someday you'll be able to snag a certain elf to take with you along the happy road of marriage."

His face flushed with embarrassment, then eased into one of uncertain hopefulness. He abruptly grabbed my arm and tugged on it. "Zia-a-a-an!" he whined tearfully. I stared at him in bewilderment. What kind of a reaction was that?

He gasped, eyes widening as he expectantly leaned forward. "…Do you really think I could?"

"Speaking of elves," Mei Rong cut in before I had a chance to assure Gui Wen that he probably could—how was I supposed to know?—and she slipped onto the chair beside Jiao. She scanned the guest tables for a moment before turning to us three. "Prince isn't here?" she asked, sounding a bit disappointed. "I was looking forward to seeing him."

Gui Wen's face was smothered in suspicion. I inched my chair away from him slightly just in case he was about to throw a fit. "Why are you looking for His Highness?" he demanded, glaring at her.

She raised an eyebrow at his dark expression, then smirked, causing Gui Wen to look confused. "No worries, Gui-gēge. I'm not at all interested in him like _that_."

For some reason, Gui Wen looked extremely angry at her remark. Perhaps he thought it was ridiculous someone wasn't interested in Prince. He'd been endlessly jealous of me for simply breathing the same air as Prince, it wasn't surprising he was disbelieving if someone denied having feelings for the young city lord, who, at that very moment, was across the dining hall, stuffing her face with what looked to be the fifth mountainous plate of food she'd had. I doubted she was anywhere near finished. How in the world did she manage to fit so much food into her stomach without it exploding in the process?

"He's nice and whatever, but I value my life, and don't want to get murdered by all his rabid fans," Mei Rong continued, stealing a shrimp off Jiao's plate to eat. "But he's so pretty to look at! Like a celebrity or a work of art. But oh, well. If he's not here, he's not here," she ended with a sigh. Silence rang out in our little group for a moment, and she suddenly observed, "Zian-gēge, that guy over there has been staring at you for a really long time."

I leaned to one side, attempting to see who she'd meant. "Where?"

"By the door," she said, briefly pointing one finger before returning to eating Jiao's food.

Finally spotting the man she was referring to, his and my eyes locked and I stared at him in surprise. "I wonder who he is," I muttered in curiosity. He looked very familiar. Kind of like a less horrifying version of my father. Perhaps he was some cousin or another.

Grabbing Gui Wen and Jiao's hands with either of mine, I watched as the man started toward us with long strides. "He's coming over here!" I whispered urgently, abruptly feeling extremely apprehensive at talking to him.

"Yes, we can see that," Gui Wen said in annoyance, attempting to take his crushed hand back from me. I refused to let go, eyes glued to the man as he picked his way through the tables, finally ending at ours.

He stared down at us for a moment, pulled a red envelope out of his jacket pocket, and waved it at me. "Congratulations on your wedding, Zian," he said softly.

"…Thank you," I answered, finally letting the other two go and slowly taking the packet with both hands.

His eyes flickered to Gui Wen, and he laughed faintly, unexpectedly sitting down in one of the table's chairs. "You two are enormous," he murmured, and began running his gaze over the large dining hall. "I never thought I would be back here in this horrendous house. What a lovely surprise it is." Looking back to us, his smile stretched further. "For more than just I, it seems."

I stared at him blankly, wondering if I should dare hope that he was who I was thinking he was.

With amusement, he leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs, looking thoroughly relaxed. "Judging by your vacant expression, completely lacking recognition, I assume my elder brother, Kuo Li, has not told you about me, Zian?"

* * *

_If the wedding info I was reading was correct: The bridal procession starts at the husband's house. From there they go to the wife's house to collect her, then go back to the husband's house. The husband leads her inside and takes off her veil thing, and then they pray at the family altar and greet the parents and bow to one another and drink wine and stuff (so descriptive…) and then the wedding itself is over, and they get to eat food. There's other stuff that happens afterward, but that's as far as I've gotten. xD Of course, there are videos you can watch online, and websites you can read if you're curious._


	42. Leave It All Behind

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

Taking a deep breath, I slowly shook my head at the man sitting across from me. An expression bordering on a sneer settled on his face. At that moment, I made a firm resolution not to expect anything from him. I'd been disappointed enough times with one father, I wasn't about to start getting all broken up over a second. Especially since this one straight away seemed just as unpleasant as the other.

"So he has not told you. Well, that is not surprising, seeing as how the idiot despises losing," the man mused. He let out an exasperated sigh and sat up a bit straighter. "I am Min Zhong Yu, your–"

"My real father, yes, I know," I interrupted quietly. Jiao's hand suddenly tightened around mine. Apparently she hadn't known before this either.

I had to agree with Zhong Yu; it wasn't surprising that my father hadn't told other people about my real parentage. He never would have wanted anyone to know his wife had cheated on him, with his brother no less, and had a son on top of it all. The son he had named his heir. That would have been quite the blow to his image.

Not that I cared.

"Biologically speaking," Zhong Yu added, waving a finger at me in warning. I was right not to get my hopes up.

"So you _did_ know already? That saves us a lot of time we could be wasting on long-winded explanations and whatnot."

"I heard the basics for the first time just last night, actually, from both my father and Gui Wen," I said.

"Oh, how terrible. Finding out such a thing at such a time." His eyebrows lowered slightly in what I assumed was supposed to be a sympathetic look. It was annoying, whatever it was.

"I am shocked that Kuo Li said anything in the first place. Well, at least you have not been left with nothing in this whole mess, hm? I hear that you are his successor, instead of Gui Wen here, of whom I have been put through many-a-speech on how amazing and perfect he is. Or _was_, apparently. Why Kuo Li so firmly thought such a thing when Gui Wen was not even a two-year-old yet is beyond me.

"Anyway, how wonderful for you to have surpassed him."

"Yes, I suppose I am fortunate in certain ways. However, I had nothing from the start, thus it would not have been odd for me to have been left the same," I answered, smirking back at him. Surpassing Gui Wen had never been something I'd been aiming for. Nor had it ever crossed my mind until he said it. Standing on equal ground, yes. Rising above him, definitely not.

He laughed deeply, shaking his head. "What a dreadful, yet very honest outlook on life. Much like mine used to be. Kuo Li has done quite the job of raising you exactly as he did me, it seems."

"And why did he? Why did you and my mother not raise me? Is she here, too?" I asked, hoping I wasn't going to regret doing so. I probably was, but whatever.

Zhong Yu hummed for a moment, staring up at the high ceiling of the dining hall. "She died, giving birth to you, actually. So, no, she is not here. Unfortunately for her.

"As for why you were raised by Kuo Li and not myself," he continued, the jeering look back on his face, even worse than before. "Firstly; I thought perhaps you would have a more comfortable life here than with me, as I am rarely at home. I travel quite a bit. Secondly; to be blunt, I did not want to raise you, because it would be very inconvenient. I never wanted a child in the first place. Thirdly and most importantly." He paused and stared at me, chuckling slightly. "I knew _he_ would hate it. After all, you are a living reminder to him of how his beloved wife and idiotic brother betrayed him. It was another glorious chance to get back at him for all of the torment he put me through while he and I grew up, all under our father's orders. Adding you onto the fact that I stole his silly wife away in the first place, I am sure it was very shocking for him."

My coming to live here was a method of revenge? Of all things…

I gazed back at him for a long moment, wondering how I could possibly be related to such repulsive people. What in the world had happened to Zhong Yu and my father to shape them into such utterly miserable beings? I simply couldn't understand why they would be so desperate to cling to their hate, when there was so much more to live for. Then again, I could see why they hated one another; they were both pricks who seemed to adore making one another's lives wretched.

Somehow, I was starting to empathize with my father and how he despised me for reminding him of this person.

"Well," he sighed, sliding his chair backward, "I must be off, I do not want to be spotted by any of the lovely relatives swarming about. Have a nice life with your new wife there, Zian. Be sure to keep a good hold on her. Who knows when _someone_ might sweet-talk her into running away and leaving you while you are not paying attention. Your mother certainly was an easy one to convince. A lovely woman, but so pitifully gullible."

Clamping a hand down on Gui Wen's shoulder, I stopped him from launching off his seat to attack Zhong Yu, though I very much wanted to do the same. He certainly had a talent for offending as many people as possible with very few words. Not only did he just insult my mother—who, for all I knew, deserved it—but he implied Jiao would leave me at the drop of a hat, and I also hadn't missed how his eyes had briefly flickered to Gui Wen when he'd said "someone."

This family was so wholesome.

Forcing my flaring temper to remain in check, since getting angry would probably only serve to amuse him, I faintly smiled at Zhong Yu and nodded. "Thank you for the wedding gift. Goodbye."

"Goodbye!" he replied breezily, waving his hand as he strode away, hopefully never to be seen again. I wasn't sure why he'd come in the first place. My day had already been extremely disheartening without adding his little greeting into the mix. He was as malicious with his words as my father was with his actions. It seemed they were certainly deserving to be brothers.

Quite a bit of time passed in very strained silence, and Gui Wen finally turned to look at me, his face extremely taunt as if he was forcing it to stay put. "I think I need to kill something," he muttered through gritted teeth.

"Well, I hope you can wait until you login to Second Life tonight." I finally released his shoulder and glanced down at the red envelope Zhong Yu had left with us. I was filled with a strong urge to flush it down a toilet, or burn it, or put it through a paper shredder, or… Well, it wasn't the poor envelope's fault the giver was a complete and total ass. Anyway, it would be a waste of money to destroy it.

Sighing slightly, I grabbed Gui Wen's elbow and stood, pulling a very stricken-faced Jiao up with me as well. "Come on, let's go sit over there," I suggested, directing us toward the table containing all of the Second Life players who were present. Mei Rong quickly picked up Jiao's plate of food and followed after us, throwing dirty looks toward the door Zhong Yu had walked out of.

We were met with warm smiles and hearty greetings—things I was in desperate need of at that moment—as we squashed ourselves into their circle.

"I take back what I said earlier," Gui Wen announced, looking thoroughly angry.

"Hello, and what's that?" Shui Han inquired, raising an eyebrow at him as she prodded her food with one chopstick.

Gui Wen leaned over the table, resting his chin on one hand, narrowed eyes darting about the room. "I'm relieved Prince didn't attend. With all of these horrible relatives wandering around, this isn't an environment fit for His Highness to be in."

"He'd probably go on a killing spree," Mei Rong added.

I stifled a smile in Lan's direction as she glanced around obliviously, and simply chuckled at the remark. It seemed Gui Wen was channeling Prince's violence. And for good reason, really. But as nice as a massacre in the middle of my wedding banquet sounded, I was glad he had calmed down, if only slightly.

"Some little old granny told us off a little while ago for being 'obnoxious morons'," Yang Ming informed, looking extremely amused at having such a thing happen. I wondered what it was they'd been doing over here to earn such a title while I wasn't looking.

"She spit all over my food while talking," Doll growled, glaring down at her plate. "She needs her dentures re-fitted!"

"Or her floppy lips. They were like a dog's," Shui Han mused, not seeming to care about how rude she'd just been. She never did, I supposed. But her bantering words suddenly didn't seem so terrible anymore, at least in comparison to Zhong Yu's genuine malevolence.

She briefly patted Tian Lang's arm. "No offense, Wolf-gē."

Oh, maybe she was aware of her rudeness.

"None taken." Tian Lang smiled widely, taking a long drink of water.

"Your lips are much nicer than hers," Yu Lian added a moment later. The doctor nearly choked on his water and covered his mouth, face steadily reddening. I wondered if he was embarrassed or if he was trying not to laugh.

In my case, it was the latter.

"There's plenty more to eat if you're still hungry, Doll," I said, giving a somewhat disgusted look at the girl's plate.

"That's not my point!" Doll snapped, pounding her fists on the table top. "It's food I could have eaten, but now it's all soaked with her gross saliva! It's such a waste! Being rich doesn't mean she can be so disrespectful to the food! And you, too, Aeolus! As my servant, I order you to be more mindful of food!"

I watched as Tian Lang comfortingly patted her head to calm her down, then I inwardly rolled my eyes. It wasn't like I was trying to reinforce slobbering all over other people's meals or whatever it was she thought I'd meant…

And when was she going to stop calling me her servant? Just because I'd carried her around didn't mean that I was now at her beck and call for everything.

That right was reserved for only Jiao.

Falling silent as the others chatted around me, I gave one last look toward the tall doorway, feeling thankful that Gui Wen and I hadn't ended up like my father and Zhong Yu. Many times in the past I'd been very much tempted to hold everything Gui Wen and my father had done to me against them, but it simply wasn't worth it to get angry and miserable over such things.

Though, seeing as how I had quite a few people who really cared about me nowadays, perhaps if Zhong Yu'd had people like that, he would have been a happier person, too. And maybe even my father. But I wasn't going to get carried away… He seemed like a lost cause, whichever way it may have happened.

Several more hours passed, and during the early evening, to make sure I wasn't there when my father got home—because he told me not to be there, and because I really didn't _want_ to be there—Jiao and I changed out of our annoyingly flashy wedding clothes, said goodbye to all of the guests, watched them leave, and together she and I headed back home at last.

I didn't glance back at my father's house as we drove out of the gate, though it would have been a lie to say I wasn't thinking about it. Actually, it was difficult not to think about it. However, the fact that I was never going back surprisingly didn't fill me with sadness, nor regret, like I would have assumed. There wasn't even any nostalgia welling up. I'd spent so much of my life in that house, yet I felt no attachment to it anymore. I knew that the now-empty office I used to occupy on a daily basis, the place that had been my cold and silent refuge for so long, it had never been a home to me.

Just a room.

And leaving it all behind made me relieved beyond words.

Before I knew it, Jiao and I were back home, walking into my bedroom. Or, I suppose it was now _our_ bedroom. But, barely three steps inside, I paused in bewilderment and wondered if I'd gone into the wrong room somehow. Most everything was the same, aside from quite a few new objects scattered about the room that were Jiao's, but there was one glaring difference.

"My bed is gone!" I exclaimed, looking about myself as if someone had hidden it from me. Not that there was anywhere an entire bed could be hidden, even if the room was rather large. Who would hide a bed, anyway? Delun? He was always doing annoying things, but I didn't suppose he would go to so much trouble.

Jiao blankly stared at me for a long moment, then pointed a hand at the large bed placed where mine used to be as if she thought I wasn't able to see it. "The bridal bed," she explained in amusement. "We had them exchanged yesterday while you weren't here."

"Oh," I muttered, feeling embarrassed as I shoved my luggage into a corner to unpack later. I'd forgotten about that little part of the wedding. I wasn't sure why I needed a new one, anyway. My old one was just fine. I'd been rather attached to it, too. It had been very comfy.

Thinking about beds was starting to make me feel awkward and even more embarrassed as I stood still, staring at it and wondering what I was supposed to do next. Jiao suddenly pulled on my sleeve. I turned to look at her, but immediately regretted it.

"OW!" I yelled, slapping a hand to the sore spot on my forehead where the bandage, which was now in Jiao's hand, used to be. The removal of the bandage was even worse than the cut itself. She could have warned me, at least, instead of just ripping it off.

Jiao laughed and dragged me into the bathroom. "You can't just stick a bandaid on and call yourself healed," she muttered, tossing the old bandage away and running water on a washcloth. I sullenly sat down on top of the toilet and frowned at her as she gently wiped the cloth over my cut. She ignored my exaggeratedly injured expression.

"That hurt," I pouted while she smeared on more antiseptic.

"So what?" she replied, smiling faintly and covering my forehead in a fresh bandage, giving it several soft slaps for good measure. "I'm sure you can take it."

"…And what if I can't?" I asked, slipping my arms around her waist and pulling her forward. My fingers easily found the row of smooth buttons at the back of her red dress.

"Well," she sighed, giving me a thoughtful stare as she leaned toward me. "I suppose I'll have to comfort you, you big wimp."

Laughing lightly, I leaned forward the rest of the way, kissing her while my trembling fingers slowly undid several of the tiny buttons at the back of her neck, loosening the dress around her small shoulders. She suddenly drew away, giving me a small, curious smile. "What do you think you're doing?"

I paused and stared at her, feeling embarrassed all over again while I dropped my hands like I'd been caught in the act of doing something I shouldn't. Did I really have to explain why I was attempting to undress her? It wasn't like there was a whole lot of meanings that such an action had.

"Who was the one who said we should abstain from doing certain things to avoid getting pregnant while I'm still a student?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and steadily meeting my flushed gaze.

"That might have been me," I replied, sulkily looking away from her. If she didn't want to, she could just say so…

"Really?" I glanced downward in surprise when her hands started tugging at the bottom of my sweater, lifting it up. She slipped her hands underneath the fabric and pressed them to my bare stomach while she leaned forward again, kissing my cheek.

I stared hard at the wall, attempting to block out the tingly feeling that was beginning to spread from her soft touches. Why was she doing that? Didn't she just turn me down? Why was she doing the opposite of what I would have assumed? Was she just being mean again? If that was the case, it was working; my muscles were starting to ache from forcibly keeping myself in place when I wanted very much to let my restraints go, regardless of whether or not she might get pregnant.

My breath hitched when she lifted my sweater higher, sliding her hands upward, and I questioningly looked back to her. After a moment of staring at her teasing smile, I suddenly realized what she was doing.

She _was_ being mean.

I slowly lifted my hands and settled them on her hips, squeezing gently. Her knee lifted and slipped between my legs, lightly pressing against them as she knelt on top of the toilet and draped her arms over my shoulders. Raising a hand, I set it on her cheek, trailing it down to her neck, then to the back of her head, tangling my fingers in her hair and pulling her forward into another kiss.

"I am willing to make an exception for tonight… if you are…?" I inquired playfully in between the gentle contact of our lips.

She replied by abruptly yanking my sweater over my head and throwing it messily onto the floor. I stood up, taking her with me and carrying her out of the bathroom, then gently threw her onto the bed.

Crawling onto the springy mattress, I paused to shakily remove her white shoes, tossed them to the floor, then continued upward. Hovering above her, I focused all of my attention on pulling her dress off her arms while she busied herself with my belt buckle. Bending down, I placed kisses across her left shoulder, working my way over her collarbone and down to her chest, slipping her dress further downward as I went. It was getting increasingly difficult to move slowly, but I forced myself to stay in check for a little while longer.

I gasped in surprise and pain, lifting myself up when I felt Jiao's hand at my very sore neck. She rested her hand on my shoulder instead, keeping her eyes on the rows of purple bruises standing out against my pale skin. "Did your father do this to you yesterday?" she whispered, glancing at me.

At my small, humiliated nod, she dropped her eyes and ran them over my chest, trailing her fingers across the countless scars marring my body. The physical display of a lifetime's worth of abuse.

"These, too?"

"Yes," I replied quietly. In the past, I'd never minded if other people saw my scars, yet having her touch them was nearly unbearable. Perhaps it was my desperate want to become a strong husband who she could lean on at any time, but exposing them to her for such a close inspection made me feel ashamed of how weak I really was.

"And this?" Her hand came to a rest on my slightly red upper arm and the small ring of cuts resting there. The place Heng had grabbed me that morning when I'd tried to leave the bedroom.

Shaking my head, I sighed, frowning at the fingernail marks. "Heng did that. He was, well, worried… He went overboard and misjudged his strength."

I looked away from her when she frowned in disapproval. This moment was anything but what I wanted it to be. I'd thought it was awkward before, meandering through my total lack of experience in this particular situation, and now it was far more uncomfortable due to her questions. Not that I minded sharing such things with her, but there was a time and place for everything. And discussing my numerous wounds wasn't something I would have placed here and now.

Much to my surprise, Jiao suddenly let out a small giggle. I glanced at her in bewilderment and she smiled up at me, slipping her hands under my arms and pulling me close again. "You sure are injury-prone. I'll just have to protect you from now on, hm? Such a handful."

At her playfully scolding tone, I smiled into my pillow and hugged her tightly. She certainly was an odd person. While I was expecting her to get angry at my father and Heng, she'd simply laughed it off. I knew she didn't think lightly of my injuries, but she also was being considerate enough not to press when I didn't want to talk about it.

Close, but distant. The way that I felt most comfortable with people.

Resuming my earlier activities, I lifted myself up slightly and lightly tugged at her dress, pulling it ever downward and replacing the clothing with a gradual covering of kisses. Each piece of her soft skin was revealed as slowly as I could stand. With careful, yet steady movements, she did the same with me, and I fitted myself against her, memorizing and treasuring every tiny detail of her naked body.

I'd missed her so much, though it had been a mere day and a half since I'd seen her. The past two days seemed to have taken a lifetime to pass by. But I had her with me again at last. All of her. And I was determined not to let another day pass by when I didn't see her or speak to her. Now that I'd had time to think things over, if only briefly, I felt sure that if I'd simply called her last night, I could have side-stepped the train wreck that Heng and I had caused in her absence.

She'd been right; I really did need to start relying on her more. She should have been the first person I'd thought of when all of that had happened. But she hadn't been, and that made me feel all the more ashamed of myself. A tiny part of my mind was still yanking me away from her, murmuring in my ears that I was simply doing the same to her as I'd done to Heng. Using her to forget.

Pausing myself, I buried my face in the crook of her neck and squeezed my eyes shut, hoping to close out all of the negative feelings in the process. Her hands brushed across my back as she drew me into an embrace, tilting her head to one side to rest on mine. "Zhong Yu was wrong," she whispered, gripping me tighter. "I won't ever leave. You know that, right?"

Smiling widely with happiness, I gasped as I let out a small laugh of relief. It wasn't that I'd been really worried after he'd rambled on that she would leave me for whatever reason, but hearing it said aloud was entirely different than mentally denying it.

"Yes," I finally replied, nodding into her shoulder."I know."

* * *

_I was going to make Zhong Yu more like Zian—quiet and polite—because that was how he used to be when he was younger, but then I thought, "What would Zian be like if he embraced his hate, rather than letting it go, and if he talked more?" Out popped Zhong Yu; a manipulative, spiteful person who never shuts up. o-o The aftermath of a lifetime of wallowing in his past with Kuo Li._


	43. Swan Song Letter

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

"I'm so nervous!" Gui exclaimed for what had to be the five thousandth time that evening. I tried to ignore him, much like the other four thousand, nine hundred, and ninety-nine times. It really didn't help that he was sitting right beside me, fretting about on his chair. Somehow, now that Prince had returned, I thought he would have started unintentionally ignoring me again. And yet he wouldn't leave me alone. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to be happy or annoyed over it. The latter was growing with increasing speed, and it looked like his and my teammates, who were sitting nearby while we all waited for Prince, Fairsky, and Ice Phoenix to finish dressing, were sharing my feelings.

Oh, well. I wouldn't be in Infinite City for much longer—assuming my teammates and I could escape after the concert—so Prince would soon be the only object of his attention. I supposed I could put up with him for a few more hours.

Gui stared at me with overflowing bucketfuls of anxiety. "I'm so–!"

"Yes, I know," I cut into his five thousand and first declaration of how nervous he was. Quickly standing up, I attempted to walk away from him, only to have him immediately follow after. Well, maybe walking around would help him relieve some of his pent-up energy, so I led him in a large circle around the edge of the room. The others looked happy that he wasn't near them anymore.

"What if we mess up some of the songs?" Gui moaned, pressing one hand to his face in worry. "Yu Lian will kill us all!"

Forcing down my smirk, I set a hand on his shoulder and gripped it as tightly as I could. "No, she won't. Killing you would make you lose levels, and that would be inconvenient for her. Torture, perhaps, but not kill.

"Anyway, you stand in front of people every single day in your classes and do just fine, right? How is a concert much different?"

"It is!" he snapped, prying my hand off and wincing in pain. "It's not like I stand on top of my desk and suddenly start playing a guqin for my students, you know! Performing music is totally different from rambling on about literature! Plus, knowing how the majority of people here in-game react to good-looking people, and seeing as how the whole band—especially His Highness, Prince—is good-looking, what if the crazy people start a riot, or something?"

"You have a point," I murmured, nodding in agreement. In the past I'd never noticed it before in my very unobservant, apathetic state where I didn't care what other people were doing as long as they left me alone, but then Dib had pointed out many strange people staring at me with creepy expressions in the more populated areas. He'd blamed it on my looks. I'd made sure to stay away from cities and crowds as much as I could after that.

Three handsome men and two beautiful women definitely had the potential to start a very chaotic stampede of looks-chasing players, of which Second Life seemed to have an unfortunate excess. Hopefully Gui and the others wouldn't die when they toured the other three cities in a week.

I slowed my steps as we started our second lap of the hall. "Consider this concert as an opportunity to test out your city guards, then. As for messing up the performance," I said, grabbing his shoulder again. He turned to look at me, and I narrowed my eyes in a challenge. "Use that fat brain of yours, and concentrate on doing your best. You have to work hard for Prince, right? So don't make any mistakes."

His initial look of indignation and offense at my calling his brain fat disappeared into one of determination when I added on Prince's name for motivational purposes. So effortlessly manipulated…

"You're right!" he answered much more confidently than before. "If it's for His Highness' sake, I will play any song perfectly! I can't let him down!"

Smiling in amusement, I let his shoulder go and went back to my chair, leaving him to finish his loop around the room by himself while he continued to mutter about how much he would make Prince proud. Yu Lian's eyes darted between Gui and I several times. "You managed to calm him down in a matter of moments? Your persuasive abilities are wasted on supply production. I think you'd be better suited for a public relations position," she commented, looking rather calculating.

"Not… at… _all_!" I firmly denied, lowering myself into my chair and frowning at her for thinking of such a thing. "Gui Wen is ridiculously easy to persuade, especially when the situation has something to do with Prince. Don't you dare think of transferring me to some horrible PR job. And speaking of jobs, did Gui Wen talk to you about expanding the archery supplies department?"

She glared at me for changing the direction of the conversation, but nodded slowly. "Yes, I looked around and have several people in consideration to help you. Since we have quite a few of Fan's troops under our control now, there are a lot more opportunities to expand the archery department's employee core, and other departments' as well. All we need is the funds to do so."

"After the concerts are over, we'll hopefully get enough money, and possibly even more workers for you with any people who decide to come live here after watching the performances," Ugly Wolf added cheerily.

"Excellent! That makes things much simpler," I muttered, grinning at the pair. Hopefully the new recruits would actually be of use. I didn't know about the work ethic of those who used to serve under that moron, Fan, but I wasn't about to trust random, unknown people to work hard when they decided to join Infinite City simply because they thought the band was nice.

But, I reminded myself, I mustn't be so judgmental when I hadn't even seen them. _If_ I was going to see them in the first place; I was going to talk to Yu Lian after the concert, and resign from my position—if at all possible—because, since I started working again, I didn't want to have to juggle two full-time jobs. Seeing how great I'd done it in the past, I knew it wouldn't go so well a second time.

My real life was more important to me than the game. Hopefully she would understand and let us leave. I wasn't going to make the others resign along with me, but they were all relatively unneeded, except for battles and whatnot. We all agreed we'd have an easier time handling the game and our real responsibilities if we left the city, so we planned on leaving to go back to Moon City at last. All we had to do was tell the Odd Squad.

A nearby door opened, and out stepped the three missing band members, plus Lolidragon, and they hurried toward us. "All ready now," the thief announced, waving a hand excitedly at the other three, who were wearing horrendously flashy clothes, which I was very happy Gui wasn't matching. My eyes dropped to Prince's hand and the microphone he was holding. Since when did Second Life have electronic stuff like that?

Weird game…

The others stood up and Yu Lian took a deep breath while Gui raced over to join us. "Okay, you three are going out first. Remember your little intro, Prince?"

"Yeah," he answered queasily, red eyes fixed on the door he'd be walking out of in a matter of moments.

"Good. The four rock songs with the girls will be done first, and then Wicked and Gui will switch out to do the slow songs," she said, looking just as nervous as the band itself. "It's just a short concert to launch the band, but…" She paused and smiled at them. "Do your best, okay?"

The five nodded frantically.

Giving Gui one more reassuring pat on the back, I turned away and walked with my teammates toward one of the side entrances to join the audience outside. Halting myself for a moment, I looked over my shoulder when Dib hung back.

"Be there soon… Al," he assured, smiling faintly and waving a hand.

Hesitating briefly, I nodded to him, and continued on out the door, wondering what he was doing. Ever since the morning of my wedding, things between he and I had been extremely awkward yet again, and I wasn't sure if I should even try to talk to him this time or just let him sort things out on his own. Who knew what would happen if I did try. Or didn't try. Either way, it was going to be difficult to get through.

I positioned myself with the other four off to one side where the crowd wasn't so thick, and intently watched the large front entrance, hoping the performance would go well. Dib emerged from the side entrance a minute or so later, but, rather than standing with us, he went to stand by the Odd Squad at the front of the crowd. Not wanting to cause problems with my meddling, I let him do as he pleased. He'd be able to see better from over there, anyway.

Under the hyper cheering of the crowd, the concert quickly began. The upbeat rock songs weren't exactly my style of music, but I did have to agree with Gui's continual gushing excitement over how well the band had been practicing. Especially the slower songs they played afterward. Or maybe that was just because I was feeling so overwhelmingly proud of Gui as he stood there so serenely, looking like he hadn't been worried at all. I'd never been to a concert before, but it went rather well. Even if they had made some mistake or another, I hadn't noticed, and thought Gui'd done perfectly.

Though, I supposed that, since he _was_ my beloved brother and all, I was a bit bias.

Just a little bit.

Shortly before the last song was over, I squeezed my way through the edge of the crowd and went back inside with the others to wait for them to finish. Avila spun about on her heels in the empty room as Prince sang the last few lines, her long ponytail flying about the air, wrapping itself over her shoulder when she came to an abrupt halt. "That was amazing!" she exclaimed, sounding somewhat breathless over the whole ordeal. "I can't believe someone like Prince hasn't been spotted by talent scouts in real life!"

"Maybe he has," Xiu Chen mused, sitting down with Wei Bo on the chairs.

"Nope, I've checked," Avila said, flopping down on the chair beside them and sighing. "I couldn't find anyone like him."

I couldn't imagine that Feng Lan would be the sort of person to take up a celebrity career in real life. Her twin brother, perhaps, but not her, especially since she was trying so hard to stay out of the spotlight in an effort to keep her identity a secret. Not that Avila knew that.

The band burst through the front entrance a moment later, all members looking very sweaty and worn-out. Their teammates came in behind us through the side entrance shortly after, chattering excitedly amongst themselves.

Gui halted his string of compliments he was throwing at Prince and unexpectedly dashed over to me. "Zian, Dib told me to give you this after the concert," he announced, holding out a small envelope.

"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow at him and took the envelope from his hand, and he quickly ran back over to Prince, resuming his praising with more enthusiasm than before, much to Prince's annoyance. Glancing over the Odd Squad, I frowned. Dib wasn't with them anymore. Where had he gone this time?

**"Dib, where are you?"** I called over the team chat. The other four looked in my direction, then curiously scanned the others, seeming to realize that he wasn't there.

**"Dib?"** Wei Bo's eyebrows lowered and he stepped closer to me, eyes glued to the front entrance. "Where'd the brat go?"

"What's that?" Jiū asked, peering at the envelope. I simply shook my head, wandering into an empty corner to get away from the everyone else. Slowly popping it open after Jiū and I sat together on the floor, I slipped out the pieces of paper inside and unfolded them, heart pounding in worry over what they might contain.

Taking a deep breath, I began to read his looping handwriting.

_"Aeolus,_

_"(This is the first time I've called you that, isn't it? It sounds kind of weird, but I'll practice! Though you'll always be Al to me.)_

_"I know this is a bizarre way to talk to you, and writing this letter makes me feel really cowardly, like a wimpy teenager breaking up with his girlfriend over a text message or something, but I didn't want to say it in person, seeing how great (not great at all!) our little talks have gone in the past. I doubt I'd be able to say it face-to-face, even if I tried._

_"Though you seem to think you're so terrible with conversing with others, you always were the one who was more clear with what was being said. I always admired that about you; how completely honest you are, no matter who you're talking to and what you're trying to say, even if you're scared of what will happen afterward. You have a lot of courage, and I hope I can be like that someday, too. (But maybe less blunt than you are.)_

_"First; I want to apologize to you (and to Jiū,) for what I did to you the night before your wedding. I shouldn't have gone after you like I did, and I definitely shouldn't have done what I did after that. I thoughtlessly put you into a bad position, and then blamed you when I didn't get the outcome I wanted, though you've corrected me many times before._

_"Not that I'm taking all of the blame for what we did, just so you know. You need to stop looking so cute and vulnerable when you're upset, stupid. It gives people the wrong impression. Plus you really had me confused with how you responded to my actions, since I was expecting you to stop me, and, for whatever reason, you encouraged me instead. But, as I said, that of course doesn't excuse my lack of self-control._

_"Second; I want to congratulate you on your marriage. Though I'm very hurt and angry about it, and I know I will be for a long time yet, I still hope you'll be happy with Jiū. I kept telling myself over and over that your happiness was all I wanted, and that I'd be able to let you go. But no matter how often I lied to myself, it wasn't the truth—I really didn't want to let you go, even if it made you unhappy, so instead I kept messing things all up and making you miserable. Sorry for being so backward and confusing all of the time. I promise it won't happen again._

_"Third; I want to thank you for being my best friend. When I was younger, I never got a chance to have such a close relationship with anyone, since I had to focus so much attention on raising my younger brothers. So you'd better be feeling honored that you were my first! _

_"I hope that you value my friendship as much as I'll always value yours. Every second we spent together over the past six years will always be precious to me. (Though all of the time before last summer doesn't really count as time spent being friends, does it? We were acquaintances, at least, so that must count for something!) And I'm not just talking about the happy moments, but also all of the stupid fights we had, and the sad stuff we went through. After all, every little thing, big and small, positive and negative, led us up to this point. None of them should be thrown away, even if we don't like some of them._

_"Fourth and finally; I want to ask for one more selfish request—don't look for me."_

"No…" Eyes widening in horror, I leapt off the floor and ran outside, ignoring the questioning stares and calls of the others. Why hadn't I seen this coming?

_"Consider this the start of my very long break from you."_

Weaving through the post-concert crowd, I searched about for him. He couldn't have gotten far yet, could he have? But what if he left before the concert even started? Since he stood at the front, I wouldn't have been able to see him leave. Was that the reason?

_"If I stay, it'll only cause more problems, and I don't want that to happen."_

Extending my wings, I lifted myself over the busy square, eyes darting about the area. He was nowhere in sight.

_"I should have done this a while ago, really, but I just never had the courage to do so."_

Feeling panic rise in my chest, I flew toward the nearest gate, still searching the bustling streets below myself.

_"But I want to give you a chance to live without being pulled in different directions."_

Frantically beating my wings faster, I wiped the tears off my face and rose higher into the warm air, hoping I'd get to him in time.

_"You've never been good with multitasking, and I don't want to be a distraction from your new life with Jiū."_

I landed on the city wall and dashed across the top of the gate, searching the land stretching out ahead of me.

_"Staying would only be another mistake between us, and we already have enough of those, don't we?"_

Fighting to breathe, I gritted my teeth and brushed away the fresh tears, taking off from the wall and flying out over the hills.

_"I know it's really selfish and impulsive (when was my behavior not like this, anyway?) but I think it's for the best."_

There was no sign of him, no matter how high or far I flew. Had he gone out a different gate?

_"So, I ask you again, please don't come looking for me, in-game and in real life."_

Landing in a pine tree to catch my breath, I quickly messaged, **"DIB!"**

_"Just be content–"_

There was no answer, so I took off again, heading toward the eastern gate to search there.

_"_–_with your life at last, and–"_

**"DIB, COME BACK!"**

_"_–_know that I'll–"_

**"DON'T LEAVE ME!"**

_"_–_always care for you."_

**"P-PLEASE! DON'T…! Don't go…!"**

_"I know you and I said a long time ago that we'd never leave one another no matter what, but I can't keep that promise. I'm not strong enough to hold myself back every single day. I hope you can understand, and that you won't resent me for this._

_"Thanks for carrying me all the time when I could have walked on my own just fine, and thanks for putting up with all of my other childish demands. I had a lot of fun with you, and I hope you did, too. _

_"Don't think of this as a permanent goodbye, I'm sure we'll see each other again. Just not anytime soon, okay? Be a big boy and keep up your spirits, though I'm not there anymore to help you smile._

_"Be sure to eat lots of food, even if you're not feeling hungry! (But don't overeat and get fat. That would be bad.)_

_"Tell the others I said I'll see them later."_

Falling to the ground, I stared at the horizon, not bothering to wipe my face again. My hand tightened around his letter, crushing it. "Dib…"

_"Bye, Al."_

* * *

_Chapter theme song! :o (these are so fun to listen for while I write… o-o)_

_I'm Still Here by Vertical Horizon_

_I've seen the ashes in my heart. I smile the widest when I cry inside and my insides blow apart._  
_I tried to wear another face, just to make you proud, just to make you put me in my place._  
_But everything you want to take from me is everything that I could never be._

_I held the pieces of my soul. I was shattered, and I wanted you to come and make me whole.  
Then I saw you yesterday, but you didn't notice, and you just walked away.  
Cause everything you wanted me to hide is everything that makes me feel alive._

_The cities grow, the rivers flow. Where you are, I never know. But I'm still here. _  
_If you were right and I was wrong, why are you the one who's gone, and I'm still here?  
The lights go out, the bridge is burned. Once you're gone, you can't return. But I'm still here._  
_Remember how you used to say I'd be the one to run away? But I'm still here…_

_Aww. x-x_


	44. The Aftermath

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

* * *

Why was it always said that when you fall in love you would never need anything or anyone besides that one person? That you would always be happy and content being together, even if the only thing you both had was the other? That you'd never even see anything besides the one you love? All of those naïve notions of romance…

The day Heng left me, I realized that sugary ideal was simply a lie. That empty scenario would be impossible if a person had the capacity to really, truly love other people. Love doesn't gather all on one person, nor does it divide into smaller pieces when someone finds numerous people they care for. Love multiplies and grows along with each new acquaintance. How would it be possible to only care for one person forever when there are so many other people in the world?

As I'd stood there, staring at the horizon of Second Life, I'd felt as though I'd just lost something priceless. And I had. I may not have been in love with Heng, but he was still one of the most important people in my life, and he was undeniably irreplaceable. Yes, I still had Jiao, and Gui Wen, and everyone else, but they weren't enough to fill the void that Heng used to occupy. And it was a very big void. Like if one of the biggest trees in a forest was chopped down, leaving a giant clearing in its wake. Even if the other trees stretched out their branches to cover the stump and new trees began to grow, there would still be a gap beneath the surface for a very long time.

Heng was the one who pulled me out of the deep, dark hole I'd been laying in for twenty-four years. Second Life may have shown me a world beyond my own tiny existence, but Heng had actually led me inside. He was my first real friend. He was the first person I'd completely trusted. He was the first person who completely trusted me. He taught me so many things and gave me so much, but now he was gone. I didn't know how to deal with his abrupt desertion, even if it was for the best.

Telling myself I had to let go of him and really letting him go were very different. I wasn't ready to say goodbye, even if he did say it wasn't for forever. I could barely imagine what my life would be like without him there with me. It turned out to be very quiet and subdued. Not unhappy, in general, but very… abnormally calm.

I managed somehow or another. After a week, I stopped rereading his letter and tucked it away in my pouch—not looking at it anymore, but not throwing it away, either. Two weeks and I erased his telephone number so I'd stop staring at his name on my cell phone's screen for long stretches of time, one finger contemplatively hovering over the dial button. Three weeks and I kept myself from glancing at his old desk when I walked past it in the office, and instead sent friendly smiles to the desk's new occupant—also a man, but not one I was ever planning on befriending, for both of our sakes.

However, even when a whole month went by, I still found myself freezing whenever I saw a flash of blond out of the corner of my eye, or hopefully straining my ears if I heard a voice that was similar to his.

Yet even that stopped eventually, with conditioning.

I reverted back to much like how I was before; with work as my top priority. I also stopped playing Second Life, aside from every now and again on the weekends.

But not everything was the same as how it used to be; I never saw my father, which made my days at the office much more bearable. If he had to say something to me, he would do it in a note or through his secretary. Though I was sure it was simply to give himself peace of mind, it also allowed me a great deal of ease.

Plus, unlike my solitary days of the past, I had Jiao there to keep me on track with her smiles and encouragement. I was thankful she even looked at me at all after I told her what had happened the night before our wedding in an effort to explain the letter's contents and why Heng left.

Jiao reacted to my confession much like I thought she would; with quiet and resigned tears, deeply hurt and angry with me, but keeping herself in check. I wasn't expecting forgiveness, and she didn't offer any. As time slipped by, we managed to make our way back to how we were. Or something similar to how we were, anyway. It would have been irrational of me to have expected things to be perfectly identical, even if a lifetime passed. After all, trust isn't so easily put back together after it's been broken, and often shards are lost along the way, leaving the finished piece but a poor imitation of what it was.

Four months flew past in that time, throwing me into spring as if winter had never happened.

I stared listlessly out my darkening bedroom window, work papers scattered around me all over the spacious window seat. Picking up the nearest sheet, I stared at it for a long moment, then dropped it on one of the stacks beside my elbow. A tedious budget report. I'd look it over tomorrow when I wasn't so tired.

My father was still sending reports to my office for me to look over, but recently I'd actually had the courage to ask him to give me something else to do besides read. His answer was prompt and to the point—apparently he'd been waiting for me to voice my displeasure over being so useless—and he put me in charge of a new construction project, working with Delun of all people.

Oh, business partnerships. Very annoying partnerships.

Well, it was better than working with total strangers, I supposed.

I turned to look across the dark room toward my door when it creaked open and Mei Rong's head popped around the jamb. "Hey, Zian-gēge!"

"Hello," I greeted quietly.

"Where's Jiao-jiĕjie?" she asked, leaning inward to look around the room.

"In the bath," I informed, sitting up a bit straighter and sliding my legs off the seat, carefully to avoid upsetting any of the papers.

"Ah, I see. Chen-dàsăo, Delun-dàgē and I are having tea in the library, want some?" she continued, swinging open the door a bit wider.

Stupid Delun, leisurely drinking tea while I was working.

"Yes, please. I'll come with Jiao once she's finished. She should be out soon."

Mei Rong tossed me a nod and left, closing the door behind herself. Giving one more reluctant glance to my work, I stood up and stretched myself out as I walked toward the bathroom door. "Jiao," I called, stepping inside the much warmer room. She peeked at me around the corner of the shower curtain. Flopping down on the fuzzy, pink bath mat, I moved the curtain out of the way and leaned against the side of the tub. "We've been invited to have tea in the library."

Something bordering on mischief flickered across her eyes while she nodded, smiling sneakily. Scooping up a handful of bubbles off the top of the steaming water, she blew them at me and stood up, closing the shower curtain again before I could retaliate. "Be out in a minute!" she said, turning on the shower to rinse herself.

Shooting a brief smirk at the outside of the curtain, I wiped the suds off my face and left the bathroom, settling myself back onto my window seat to get a bit more done work while she finished. What she called a minute was usually quite a bit longer than that in terms of doing something in the bathroom, so I supposed I shouldn't waste time sitting about doing nothing while I waited.

Returning to my vacant staring rather than working, I sighed softly and leaned against the cold wall. I really didn't want to go to tea. I wanted to stay in here and go to sleep. But they would probably use force if I refused. They'd done that quite often in the recent weeks. Whenever I attempted to seclude myself, one of them always appeared to keep me occupied.

While their relentless attention was somewhat annoying, I was also a bit grateful for it. They knew that I didn't want to talk about what happened, so they were simply trying to keep my spirits up as best they could; dragging me out of the house for random outings; forcing me to eat breakfast and dinner in the dining hall; pushing babysitting duties of Shuang onto me during the weekends.

But even with all of the distractions, Heng still weighed heavily on my mind. What was he doing? How was he doing? How were his brothers? Did he have another job yet?

…When was he coming back? If he was missing me anywhere near as much as I was missing him, I doubted that day was going to come any time soon. That would defeat the whole purpose of leaving in the first place.

Closing my eyes, I inwardly frowned at myself for being so hopeless. While endlessly dreary, things really were better this way. They would be much worse if he'd stayed.

But still…

"Are you okay?"

Slowly opening my eyes, I forced a small smile onto my face and turned to Jiao, giving her a neutral, "Mm," while pulling her forward into a tight hug.

Her slightly wrinkly hand lightly patted my head. I leaned against shoulder, taking a deep breath of the smooth, fruity smell of her shampoo. Now I wanted to go to bed even more than before. And for a very different reason than feeling tired.

"You really miss him, don't you?" she asked softly.

"Mm," I repeated, feeling my mood suddenly spiral downward again. Letting her go, I stood up and rubbed my eyes for a moment, determined not to go through this conversation yet again. I missed him terribly, and that was all there was to it. I didn't want to wallow in my loneliness more than I already was.

Taking her hand, I squeezed it gently and started off toward the door. "We should go to the library."

She seemed to perk up slightly at my suggestion, looking very excited about something. Feeling somewhat confused, I walked with her to the library and reluctantly opened the door. I was suddenly hit in the face from several directions with something papery and deafened by roars of "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Completely stunned and not having any idea what was going on, I let myself be directed to the table, bits of colorful confetti fluttering out of my hair as I went. "H-huh? What? It is?" I sputtered in shock, staring down at the decorative cake sitting on the tabletop in front of me. Since when was it… Wait, what… Oh, I guess it was.

"You seriously forgot your own birthday?" Delun asked, shaking his head at me in disbelief as he adjusted the bright pink party hat on top of Shuang's head. "No wonder planning this party without you noticing was so weirdly easy."

"W-well," I muttered, shrugging. "I've never… celebrated it before…"

Mei Rong's face suddenly lit up. "Oh! Does that mean we get to celebrate his other twenty-four birthdays, too?"

Without waiting for consent, she left the room for several minutes. When she came back, she was holding a plastic bag full of colorful candles. Rummaging around in it for a bit, she started sticking candles all over the top of my cake, hyperactively bouncing up and down.

"Um," Chen began, eyes following Mei Rong's hand as candle after candle was added. "I don't think the cake can hold enough candles for twenty-five birthdays all at once…"

"It'll go up in flames," Delun remarked. "That's, what, over three hundred candles?" He paused and glanced at me, smirking. "Old geezer."

Predictably, he suddenly began helping Mei Rong put on more candles, and soon the other three had joined in. I watched in resigned silence as all five of them turned my poor cake into a rainbow forest of candles. They stopped counting long before they finished, and simply continued to poke on as many as they possibly could until I couldn't even see the cake anymore.

"Done!" Chen declared, looking as though she'd never been against the idea in the first place. She determinedly raised a box of stick matches over her head. "Time to light!"

If the house was about to burn down, I was prepared to take none of the responsibility.

Somehow or another, they managed to light every single candle, making what looked more like a bonfire than a birthday cake. I stared at it, feeling very reluctant to put my face anywhere near it to blow the candles out, and they all sang the birthday song as if there was nothing odd about this at all. What were they thinking, anyway, lighting a cake on fire, especially in front of a four-year-old girl? I hoped Delun and Chen had already fixed "matches are bad" into Shuang's head.

Delun slapped my back afterward. "Go ahead!" he cheered, looking like he was thoroughly enjoying tormenting me.

After fearfully staring at the leaping flames for a moment longer, I took a deep breath and blew out as many as I could. That didn't do very much—the surrounding candles actually re-lit some of the blown-out ones, giving me more work to do—so I repeated the process until I was feeling extremely light-headed. Shuang helped me along the way, once the inferno wasn't so huge and terrifying. Other than what I assumed was far too much smoke clouding the air, a lot of wax drippings all over the table, and countless holes poked into the top and sides of the icing, the cake itself looked like it was relatively unharmed.

"That was quite the display." Eyes widening, I stared in horror at the library door where their parents were standing, looking torn between amusement and shock at what their children had just done. Had they seen the whole thing? Oh, no… Now I really, really wanted to go back to my room.

"Grandpa, grandma!" Shuang called, happily running over to them.

"That was so cool!" Mei Rong exclaimed, still staring at where the blaze had just been and looking as though she wanted to try it a second time. I quickly stood up and began to pick off the candles before she got the chance. This family was so bizarre.

Laughing, their parents came to sit at the table, both wearing flamboyant party hats Shuang had put on them. I kept my eyes focused on the cake, rather than looking at them. They were nothing like my father, in fact they were extremely warm and friendly, though a bit strict here and there, but I still felt twinges of fear whenever they were around. It would be a long time before I'd get used to the idea of parents actually being caring people, rather than hateful dictators.

It wasn't until Delun pushed me back into my chair so I would stop messing with the candles that I sent them small, polite smiles. "…Good evening."

"Good evening, and happy birthday!" they returned warmly.

I went back to nervously staring at my cake, having already run out of things to say to them.

My staring match with the cake was interrupted when a small pile of presents was slid across the table. I started staring at those instead, wondering what I was supposed to do. Couldn't they stop looking me? Was I really so entertaining to observe? Were all birthdays so terrifying? Why'd I agree to have tea? Where was the tea, anyway? They hadn't even given me any, nor was there any on the table. Those sneaky people, luring me here so they could torture me.

"Hurry up, Twig!" Delun grumbled from across the table after several minutes of watching me doing nothing.

Nodding, I shakily started pulling at the corner of the wrapping on the very flat present on top. A piece of paper fell out. I laughed slightly as I looked it over. A very wildly-colored crayon drawing of the whole family, myself included, was scrawled across the paper, Shuang's name at the bottom.

"Thank you very much, Shuang-mèi," I said, smiling warmly at the little girl. "It's beautiful. I love it."

"Hang it up in your room!" she ordered excitedly, beaming up at me from her grandfather's lap.

"I will," I promised, and set it to one side as I began to unwrap the next. The wrapping paper came off to reveal several thin books. My eyebrows lowered in disbelief when I looked at the cover of the first, then I looked up at Mei Rong's delighted expression. This present could only be from her. In fact, I was positive she also had copies for herself.

"Infinite City Band's portfolios?" I asked, laughing while I flipped through the book on top, only to quickly shut it after a few pages, my face flushing with embarrassment and shock.

What kind of books… Were these really something a fifteen-year-old girl was allowed to buy? Why wasn't there a warning on the front? Shui Han definitely had to be the mastermind behind some of those poses. That perverted woman, what was she making my poor brother do? Then again, he was probably enjoying himself immensely, judging by the sorts of pictures I'd glimpsed that he'd shot with Prince.

"Thank you, I'll be sure to… look through them later." I hoped my tone was actually thankful and gingerly shifted those nearly-erotic books aside to join Shuang's drawing. Jiao was definitely going to have to be present for support and restraint whenever I decided to actually look inside.

Taking a deep breath, I hesitantly pulled the next present toward myself and carefully removed the wrapping. Out came several t-shirts from Delun and Chen, much to Delun's amusement. I smirked at him and said, "Thank you," wondering if he actually thought my left arm was still as scrawny as it had been. He was going to be sorely disappointed if that was the case. I'd been lifting weights the past few months and my arm was now nicely muscular, not at all skinny like it had been.

The present second to last, from Jiao's parents, was a very nice set of fountain pens and several bottles of ink—black, blue, red, gold, and silver. Something that would be interesting to use at work, and very handy, seeing how many times I wrote my signature every day.

And finally, I slowly unwrapped the last present from Jiao. A thick blue book came into sight and I curiously opened it up to the first page. The very familiar face of a completely unfamiliar woman looked back up at me. My breath suddenly left me as I ran my eyes down the page, hungrily turning to the next.

My mother, smiling happily, her stomach becoming increasingly larger with each photograph. I'd never seen her before, for obvious reasons, but this couldn't have been anyone else. I saw a more masculine version of that face in the mirror every single day, after all.

The pages following those first few were filled with pictures I hadn't known existed of Gui Wen and I as infants and growing children, as well as pictures of Gui Wen during his his university years, pictures of a teenage me, and even many pictures of Jiao and her siblings as they grew up.

On the last page was a single photograph of three young children—my father, his brother, and his sister, all simply looking like the innocent children they'd been, not at all like the miserable adults they were. Though it was somewhat depressing to see, it definitely wasn't an unwanted sight. I wondered in awe where Jiao had gotten all of these. They must have been extremely difficult to find and gather.

Carefully closing the album, I stared down at the cover for a very long time, rubbing my mouth with one hand and fighting back all of the tears threatening to spill out. "Thank you," I whispered as Jiao tightly hugged me.

Several minutes passed by in silence, then Mei Rong suddenly snapped, "Jiao-jiĕjie, you sneaky copy-cat! Getting him a photo book as well!"

I glanced up at her indignant frown and laughed while Jiao sat down beside me. "How could I have copied you?" Jiao asked in annoyance. "We didn't tell one another what we were getting him!"

The argument took off from there. The rest of the evening passed in light-hearted conversation, slices of cake, and warm smiles. To top it all off, Jiao forced me to login to Second Life that night, and waiting for me was another birthday party in the castle of Infinite City, complete with just-as-shocking-as-earlier screams of "Happy birthday!" as I was yanked into the room and given a bone-crushing hug from Gui. Or, at least, it would have been if he was stronger.

I slowly patted him on the back in a wordless thanks, feeling somewhat reluctant to touch him after I'd become aware of those portfolios. Not seeming to notice my discomfort, he excitedly dragged me to where his team was standing. Prince held out a large, awkwardly-wrapped present to me, and I took it. Inside was a new longbow made out of some dark blue wooden material, with little feathery patterns etched into the limb, and a new quiver of arrows to match.

"It's a growth-type weapon," Yu Lian informed, smiling in a very warm, un-Yu Lian-like way, though that slipped into her usual expression a moment later. "Very expensive. So take good care of it, okay?"

"Yes, thank you, I will," I replied quickly, not wanting to know what she would do to me if I didn't. Moments later, my own team presented me with a new set of dragonleather armor, completing my unexpected upgrade.

And of course a very loud and hyperactive celebration took place directly after that—they probably just wanted an excuse to party—thankfully, the Odd Squad kept a very close eye on Prince when several kegs of alcohol were rolled into the hall—and thus passed my first-ever acknowledged birthday. I was left wondering if I wanted to look forward to next year or dread it. It certainly had been fun, however I was feeling. I'd completely forgotten all about it, having never paid attention to it before in the past. It was just another day, or so I thought.

Early the next morning, I quickly straightened my red tie and smiled up at Shuang's drawing—taped in a very eye-catching spot right on the side of my mirror—then stepped over to my desk. Pausing when I reached for my suit jacket draped over my chair, I stared down at the small, yellow envelope sitting beside my computer. Glancing over my shoulder to where Jiao was still asleep in bed, I slowly sat down and slid the envelope toward myself, wondering who put it there. It hadn't been there last night.

Opening it, I removed a card. A pretty, scenic photo of a meadow was gracing the front. Cautiously looking inside, I smiled faintly at Heng's handwriting. It was simply another two-word birthday greeting, but I was very thankful for it. Even his brothers had written wide-spread messages all over the rest of the inside of the card.

I nearly moved to tape the card beside Shuang's picture, but immediately changed my mind. Feeling my throat tighten against the unwanted emotions swirling up, I instead carefully placed the card back in its envelope and put it away in my desk, out of sight. Sighing softly, I picked up my jacket and bag, then left the room, quietly shutting the door behind myself.


	45. Clockwork

_**Disclaimer **__**–**_ ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo

___**Note **__****__**–**_ So many of you are disappointed that Dib & Al didn't end up together. *points at the **friendship** genre that has been there since the beginning* lol xD It was never supposed to be a romance.  


_Anyway, enjoy the last chapter. ____I feel so sad now that I'm finished…_  


* * *

Breathing deeply into my squashy, nice-smelling pillow, I refused to let my eyes open, though my internal clock was telling me what hour it was. That and the room was very bright, and I could hear countless annoying birds chirping through my bedroom window, which I probably should have shut last night. But I didn't want to get up. My bed was too warm and comfy to climb out of just yet.

My bedroom door crashed open moments later and I inwardly rolled my eyes. There went any hope of sleeping for a bit longer. Well, I did promise to go to out that day, and she was always so impatient…Probably got it from me.

I kept myself as still as possible as tiny footsteps slapped across the wood floor, and the edge of my bed dipped slightly as my sleeping space was invaded. Ignoring how I was being roughly jumped upon, I turned my head to the other side and frowned, attempting to think up some way to put off the inevitable. "Walk-in hours don't start until ten o'clock, unless you have an appointment scheduled. Didn't you read the sign on the door?"

"I have a 'pointment!"

"Really?" I asked quietly, sighing slightly into my pillow. "I can't recall."

"That's 'cause you're an airhead."

Finally opening my eyes, I abruptly sat up and stared at the teeny pajama-clad girl sitting on my legs. "Did you just…" I muttered with feigned anger. She smiled brightly in return, not at all scared by my fury. Grabbing her by the arms, I flipped her onto her back and pinned her to the warm patch of mattress where I'd been laying. "Did you just call me an _airhead_?" I demanded, glaring down at her. I got a giggle in response, to which I promptly began a tickling session. "You…do…not…call…your…father…an…airhead!" I growled over her loud shrieks as she squirmed in my gentle grip, trying and failing to escape.

"D-DA-DADDY, STO-O-OP!" she screamed between laughs. I ignored her frantic pleas and continued to relentlessly tickle her in revenge for interrupting me when I was… well, doing nothing. I didn't need a reason to torture her, I supposed.

"MOMMY! SAVE ME! WA-A-A-A-AH!"

"Calling for help is pointless! No one can save you now!" I yelled, pulling her back to myself when she attempted to scramble toward the other side of the bed where Jiao was—or had been, anyway—asleep. I doubted she was sleeping any longer, with all of the bed-shaking, flailing, and loud tickling taking place so close by.

The lump of blankets beside me moved about for a moment, and Jiao's disheveled head popped into sight. "Why do you two have to be so loud every single morning?" she murmured through a yawn while she rolled over and blearily stared at us over the edge of the fluffy blanket.

"Aren't Lien Hua's screams much more pleasant to wake up to than the incessant beeping of an alarm clock?" I asked playfully, resting my weight on one arm as I leaned over her. She smiled faintly as I bent down to give her a brief kiss. She then flipped the blanket over her head again, disappearing from sight.

"It's Saturday, I don't want to have to wake up to anything," came her muffled response, and then there was silence.

Sighing deeply, I picked up Lien Hua and slid off the edge of the bed. "Come on, mommy is sleepy and doesn't want to wrestle with us, like the spoil-sport she is. Let's go shave our beards, yours is getting very bushy," I suggested to the tiny girl as I patted her completely smooth, chubby cheek, speaking in a purposefully loud tone while I hurried into the bathroom, wondering how long it would be before Jiao noticed.

It took several minutes, but Jiao suddenly gave a strangled yell. There was a loud thudding noise as if she'd fallen out of bed, and she then stomped into the bathroom with an outraged expression as I paused, a handful of shaving cream only inches away from Lien Hua's gleefully grinning face.

"Three-year-old girls don't grow beards!" Jiao exclaimed, sounding as though she was implying girls of some other age did. "Get that away from her!"

I slapped the cream onto my own face instead and smeared it around, shooting her a disappointed frown. "Well, Gao is too young to shave just yet, so I thought–"

"So what?" Jiao interrupted, safely scooping Lien Hua off the bathroom counter as if she really thought I would attempt to give her a shave. "That makes you default to her?"

"Maybe," I muttered in amusement as I turned to the mirror and picked up my razor.

"But, mommy, my beard is bushy!" Lien Hua declared, leaning toward me and waving her arm in an attempt to grab me.

"You've brainwashed her!" Jiao yelled indignantly, giving the back of my leg a kick before running out of the bathroom. Laughing to myself, I rolled my eyes and re-adjusted my grip on the razor.

After a quick shave and shower, I dressed myself and hurried out of the bedroom, lifting my messenger bag over my head and onto my shoulder. Walking down the hallway for a moment, I popped my head into the toy-strewn nursery. Jiao gave me a guarded look into the rectangular mirror in front of her as she brushed Lien Hua's hair into a curly-ended ponytail.

Rather than going over to bother them, I slipped across the room and came to a halt at the white cradle near the large windows. "Good morning, Gao," I brightly greeted, extracting the baby boy from his bed and hugging him close to myself.

He made a gurbly noise in response, and promptly began chomping on the string of my jacket's hood.

"I know, I know, but we have to wait for the ladies to finish before we can go down to breakfast," I muttered, patting his back as I stepped up behind Jiao and stared at her in the mirror. Hefting Gao up a bit higher, I leaned my head on his. "Here's a life lesson, Gao; always give your wife a time limit, or else she'll spend hours and hours preparing herself, and you'll waste away long before she's finished getting ready. Now, first–"

Before I could continue pointlessly lecturing Gao on the ways of women, Jiao shot my forehead with one of Lien Hua's colorful hair bands. "Excuse me, but we ladies _have_ to spend more time getting ready than you hasty men! It's a long, complicated process! How else will we look pretty for you?"

"You're gorgeous all of the time, with or without makeup, and carefully coordinated outfits, and all of those other things, not that I don't love looking at your efforts. However, you're stunning even when you're ill and gross stuff is running out of your nose," I commented, bending over to rest my chin on top of her head.

She frowned at me and pushed me off her head. "Of course someone would be stunned if they saw me while I have stuff coming out of my nose," she snapped, her face flushing as she attempted to erase a smile. Standing, she lifted Lien Hua up for me to carry. "Go ahead and take them to breakfast, I'll be down soon."

Taking Lien Hua in my other arm, I nodded and hurried out the door and downstairs to go to the dining hall. Bursting through the large doorway a few minutes later, I inwardly laughed as Delun glared at me from his seat where he'd just violently jumped in surprise at our abrupt entrance. Shouldn't he be used to it after so long?

"Good morning!" I called, lowering Lien Hua to the floor. She ran to the table to sit beside Shuang while I pulled up Gao's highchair and sat down beside a very annoyed Delun.

"Why are you so loud every morning?" he grumbled sleepily, shooting me several dirty looks while he mopped up a bit of orange juice he'd spilled on the table, narrowly missing splashing his newspaper.

More importantly, why was everyone so redundant?

"Because I am," I answered promptly. "Anyway, it's all Lien Hua's fault for waking me up. Blame her."

Delun yawned widely behind one hand, then shrugged. "No fair using your kid as a scapegoat. Did you expect her to sit in bed all day after you promised to go to the park? Shuang used to wake Chen and I up way too early all the time, even when we didn't have anything planned."

Shuang sent Delun an annoyed look, which made her look very much like him, before going back to her bowl of cereal. I laughed slightly, staring down at the table as a plate of food and a baby bottle were set in front of me. "Thank you," I said to the maid, then smirked at Delun. "And just think, you're going to have to get used to that all over again once Jin gets a bit older."

"Shut up, Twig, I know that already," he muttered, scowling at the wall. Quickly picking up the bottle, I handed it to Gao, then started on my own breakfast.

After what seemed like ages, Jiao, Chen, and Mei Rong all filed into the room at last. Jiao sat on the other side of Gao, Chen pulled up a second highchair for Jin—Delun and her ten-month-old son—and Mei Rong flopped herself into the nearest empty chair she could find, looking like she was still asleep.

Lien Hua hastily slipped off her chair and ran over to Jiao, climbing onto her lap. "Mommy, hurry up!" she urged, staring determinedly at Jiao's plate of food, which was apparently not being emptied fast enough.

"I am," Jiao replied, still eating as slowly as before. Lien Hua then proceeded to help the process along by eating the food herself. "Hey, that's mine," Jiao scolded, lowering Lien Hua to the floor and giving her a gentle push back in Shuang's direction. I finished my food as fast as I could and quickly occupied Lien Hua to give Jiao time to eat, though I was also getting rather antsy. An hour later, we were piling out of my car, having arrived at what Lien Hua thought of as the most exciting place in the whole world—the park.

She barely gave me time to help Jiao pick out a spot for her to sit before the little girl yanked me across the grass, dragging me all over the playground equipment, regardless of how I was far too big, having me push her on the swings, and running about everywhere until I was about to collapse from exhaustion.

It wasn't until nearly four hours had passed that she let me fall onto the blanket Jiao had spread out off to one side. "Daddy, daddy, daddy," Lien Hua called, sitting on top of my back and punching my shoulder.

"What, what, what?" I asked in amusement, rolling over and lifting her into the air above me, though my arms were nearly shaking from the effort.

"May I have some ice cream?" she asked, smiling widely.

"Yes," I answered, trading her for a bottle of water from Jiao. "But I'm about to die, so go buy some with mommy."

Lien Hua gave a gasp as she stood up and patted my arm while I took a very long, much-needed drink of water. "Don't worry, daddy! I'll get you some, too, and you won't die!"

"Oh, thank you. That's very relieving." Taking Gao from Jiao, I waved at them as they hurried away to get the life-saving ice cream, then promptly fell back onto the blanket again. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath of the warm air, resting my hand on top of Gao's back while he quietly slept. I let myself relax, but not enough to actually fall asleep.

Three years of being a father, and I still wasn't used to the pace of a child. But it was definitely fun, regardless of the difference in energy levels. Although, even with as much as I adored spending time with both of my children, I still lost my temper at times whenever they got especially annoying and things of that sort—I wasn't a perfect father by a long shot, but I was trying my hardest to be a _good_ one, at least, unlike two certain people I could have named.

However tired I was feeling, several minutes later, footsteps approached across the grass, coming to a stop near my head and interrupting my doze. "That was fast," I muttered, slowly opening my eyes. "Did you forget your…purse…?"

"Sorry to break it to you, but I don't carry a purse," came the amused reply from a much deeper voice than expected. I disbelievingly stared upward, not daring to open my mouth and say anything in return just yet. Instead I continued to look up at him in shock while he crouched down and leaned over, sending me into shadow. He looked exactly like I remembered he had so many years ago. That same playful expression, the messy I-don't-care-what-it-looks-like hair, the warm eyes, the always-unexpectedly tidy clothes, the teasing tone.

Except…

"Why are you wearing glasses?" I asked in bewilderment, glancing over the rectangular, rimless lenses resting on the bridge of his nose.

Heng frowned at me, roughly prodding my forehead with one finger. "Because I need them, of course! Why else would I be wearing them? To look cool? As if! You jerk. Five years to think of a greeting, and that's the first thing you say to me? Not even a 'How have you been?' or a 'What are you doing here?' or…What are _you_ doing?"

Wordlessly raising my hands, I put them on either side of his face and slowly removed his glasses, carefully folding them up in one hand. A few more silent moments passed by while I stared into his dark eyes, then I warmly smiled. He looked somewhat confused, but then hesitantly smiled back.

I then punched him as hard as I could, rage inwardly boiling over. That stupid man, leaving for five years and suddenly coming back all annoyingly cheery, acting as though nothing had happened.

He picked himself up and took a deep breath, but I put a finger to my lips and pointed at the sleeping Gao—my little excuse to escape any angry remarks, no matter what I'd done. "No yelling, idiot! You'll wake him up!" I whispered hotly, giving Heng an upside-down glare as he snatched his glasses away from me and angrily crammed them back onto his face.

Though he looked like he very much wanted to punch me in return, he stayed where he was and watched as I slowly sat up, carefully lowering Gao to lay beside me on the blanket. Heng stared down at the baby with wide eyes. "Your son?" he asked quietly, shifting closer and sitting down on the blanket as if to get a better look at him.

I nodded, fondly running my hand over Gao's fuzzy little head. "Yeah," I confirmed, laughing slightly. "His name's Gao. He'll be seven months old pretty soon."

"Wow," Heng breathed, cautiously fiddling with Gao's tiny foot. "Is he your first?"

"Second. I also have a three-year-old daughter, Lien Hua," I replied, smiling even wider. "She's off buying ice cream with Jiao, at the moment. Probably made herself hungry after running about so much." My daughter certainly hadn't inherited my appetite. It was quite the challenge to get the house staff to stop giving her little snacks, though we'd asked them not to. However, Lien Hua seemed to know all too well how cute she was, and was already looking for ways to use her cuteness to her advantage, much like Dib had in the past, always using his looks to butter up shopkeepers for bargains and whatnot. He…

Dib…

I paused, suddenly realizing what was going on, and glanced at Heng while he continued to look down at Gao, a complicated expression on his face. I attempted to calmly sort out some sort of inquiry, though I was abruptly filled with panic.

"Heng, is…is this going to be, well…Jiao and Lien Hua will be back soon, and…"

Chuckling slightly at my flustered words, Heng shook his head and sighed. "No, it's fine. I don't…I wouldn't have come over here if…"

His eyebrows drew together and he buried his face in his crossed arms. "Geeze, Zian. Five years…I had all these great things planned out to say whenever I'd see you again, and now I can't remember any of them," he muttered, his voice coming out very muffled. One of his eyes briefly came back into view over the top of his arm. "I'm not going to tell you that all of that stuff is in the past, 'cause, well, to be honest even now I still don't know…Feelings like that don't just go away, even with a lot of…time and distance…However, some things aren't like that now. It'll be fine."

At my doubtful stare, he sat up straight again. "It really will be," he assured, smiling. "I know that for sure, at least. I have a good, solid reason this time. Two of them, actually."

"And what are those?" I asked skeptically. How often had I heard him say whatever it was it would all be okay, only to have everything blow up in our faces but moments later? I was ecstatic beyond words to see him after so long, but if having him there was only going to cause conflict, I knew I would definitely let him leave again without a fuss. Especially with what he just said.

Heng's smile suddenly increased tenfold and he held up his left hand. Quirking an eyebrow, I stared at it for a moment. There was a gold band, not unlike my own, wrapped around his ring finger. "HENG!" I yelled in surprise, but then remembered Gao was sleeping, so I continued much more quietly, "Heng, you stupid idiot! You went and got married without telling me? How rude!" Grabbing his hand, I looked at the ring closer, then looked back up at him, laughing with alleviation. "When did this happen?"

"A couple years ago," he answered, looking extremely pleased with himself. His eyes flickered to a spot beyond me, and his expression sobered up slightly. "I'll explain once they get here."

Looking over my shoulder, I watched as Jiao and Lien Hua walked toward us, Lien Hua suddenly seeming much more subdued as she noticed Heng. When they'd reached us, Jiao stared down in shock at Heng. "Hello."

"Hello," Heng returned, smiling as his eyes curiously dropped to Lien Hua. She shifted closer to me, shakily handing me a chocolate ice cream cone before sitting between Jiao and I, sending many suspicious looks in Heng's direction.

"Heng, this is my daughter, Lien Hua," I introduced, putting an arm around the tiny girl and giving her a hug while she focused all of her attention on her ice cream. "Lien Hua, this is my very good friend, Shi Heng."

She allowed herself a tiny glance in his direction, not saying anything and quickly going back to her snack. I gave Heng an apologetic look. He simply shrugged off her shyness and smiled warmly at her. "Nice to meet you."

"Jiao," I called excitedly, grabbing Heng's left hand again and yanking him forward. "Look at what he did!"

She looked even more shocked than before. "Oh! Congratulations!" she exclaimed, suddenly smiling at him and relaxing quite a bit. It seemed she also hadn't forgotten, understandably.

Heng laughed while he stared fondly down at the ring. "Thanks."

"Who's the lucky…" I paused again, wondering how I should phrase the question. Asking him the gender of his significant other sounded like it would be an extremely rude thing to do.

Seeming to understand my hesitation, he smirked at me and finished in my place, "Woman. Not anyone you two know, I think. Someone I work with." He glanced at my mildly surprised expression and continued quietly, "She surprised me too, really."

"Where is it that you're working?" Jiao asked.

"A daycare near my house where my younger brothers used to attend," he replied. "I started working there a few months after I stopped working at Zian's father's company. I help out with all of the business stuff, since I don't have any educational experience, but nowadays I do go play the kids pretty often. They're a lot of fun."

"That sounds like it suits you much better than a desk job," I commented, inwardly smiling at the thought. He was far too energetic a person to sit about in an office all day long.

"Oh, it does," he agreed fervently, a bubbly laugh following his lightly spoken words. "I love it. The pay is a lot lower than I had before, but I've gotten by. My brothers have all started part-time work at the daycare to help out a bit with expenses as well, so with five incomes totaling up, it's not bad at all."

"How are those three doing?" I questioned, causing his face to abruptly fall into sadness. I regretfully wondered if I shouldn't have asked.

"Oh, they're fine," he muttered with a lengthy sigh, making me feel very relieved that they hadn't died or something, with as depressed as he'd looked. "Starting on their final year of high school, getting all independent, and stuff…They don't really need their big brother anymore. It's kinda lonely." After a moment, he brightened and sat up a bit straighter again. "But I suppose I'll be okay even if they move out, 'cause I have a son now, too! He's almost one year old, and so adorable and obnoxious, just like me!"

I blankly stared at him, attempting to not feel flabbergasted over the new bit of information. Assuming his wife was his first "reason," this must have been his second. Even with how he'd been like a parent and raised his brothers, picturing him as a real father was still extremely difficult. He was _Heng_, for goodness sake.

Well, unbelievable or not, I was very happy for him.

"So, how are things on your guys' end?" he asked after a pause.

Quickly swallowing my mouthful of ice cream, I smiled. "Delun-dì and Chen-mèi have a cute little baby boy now as well, Jin, Shuang-mèi turned nine recently—she's getting so huge—Mei Rong-mèi is on her second year in university—very hardworking—and is getting married in a year or so, and Jiao and I are great, as always," I listed off.

Nostalgia settled over Heng's face as he listened. "Ah, that's good to hear. I've missed all you guys," he murmured, pulling out his cellphone and staring at the screen. "Thanks for being so brief and to-the-point, same as ever…"

Same as ever?

Thankfully not.

"I've gotta go. I said I was going out to get stuff for lunch and dinner, but stupid Zian distracted me, over here randomly sleeping on a blanket—you fall asleep in the weirdest places—so now I have to hurry, or else I'll have to face to wrath of the study-strained triplets, who eat like they have ten stomachs, and then some."

Laughing slightly, I nodded and watched as he stood up and brushed the grass off himself. "It was really nice to see you guys again. I'll stop intruding on your family time," he said, smiling down at us as he backed away and waved. "Bye!"

Gnawing on the end of my ice cream cone, I watched as he strode away through the grass and toward the park gate. "Be right back." I hastily swallowed the cone, patting Jiao's shoulder before I jumped up and raced after him. "Heng!" He paused and turned around to wait for me to catch up. "W-will you be around?" I asked hesitantly, hoping he was going to agree.

He was quiet for a moment, continuing on to the gate as I walked beside him, then he nodded. "Yeah," he said softly. "I suppose I will be. If you wouldn't mind, of course."

I smiled in amusement. "I wouldn't have come after you if I minded."

"Mm." When we stopped at the gate, he sighed and lifted a hand to carelessly rumple up his hair. "Sorry for not inviting you to the wedding, or, well, contacting you and stuff. It was just…very awkward."

"No, I understand," I replied, shrugging slightly. I also hadn't made any effort to reconnect with him, even after so much time had passed. I'd certainly thought about it many, many times, but to let him go as he'd wanted, I held myself back.

Grinning after a moment, Heng pulled me into a quick hug, roughly slapping my back. "See you later, Zian."

"Bye," I called after him, watching as he hurried out the gate and walked down the street. Letting out a whoosh of anxious breath, I whirled around and ran back to Jiao, happily catching Lien Hua up in my arms when she dashed forward to meet me halfway.

That night in Second Life, I left Infinite City with Wei Bo and Avila to wait for Jiū and Xiu Chen to login after tending to the babies. Striding along the rough, dirt path, I smiled to myself while I ran the day over in my mind, and wondered when it was that I'd see Heng again. I probably should have asked for his cellphone number so I'd be able to call and meet him for lunch along with his wife and Jiū, or something of that sort. Though I supposed I could just call his house instead.

"Three o'clock," Wei Bo suddenly announced for no apparent reason, and I glanced at him in bewilderment. "Three!" he repeated cryptically after a moment, raising an eyebrow.

Oh, three.

I obediently turned to my right, wondering what it was he was pointing out. Eyes widening, I inadvertently halted upon noticing five people walking toward us through the long, swaying grass.

Three men, one woman, and one tiny boy.

"DIB!" I yelled, then shot off in their direction without another thought. I launched into the air as fast as I could. He detached himself from his group and ran toward me. I didn't bother landing, and he apparently didn't expect me to. He reached his arms out and I swept him into the air, using both of our momentum to flip upside-down. I then threw him upward as hard as I could manage.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING-G-G-G? A-A-A-AH!" His terrified scream rang through the air while he flew far, far above me. I loved being so abnormally strong.

I caught him safely when he fell back down and laughed, hugging him as tightly as I could while I dropped us both to the ground between our two teams. He punched me repeatedly with all of his strength. "YOU JERK! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?"

"No!" I denied between laughs, grabbing his fists and stopping him from beating me up any further.

"Nice throw, Twig," Wei Bo remarked, having finally caught up to me. "Hey, Dib. Good to see you."

"H-hey," Dib greeted shakily once I'd lowered him to the ground. He promptly fell over, glaring up at me while he kicked one leg in my direction. "Who the hell throws people a bazillion miles into the air with no warning?"

"Obviously _I_ do," I mused, shrugging as I ran my eyes over the other four he'd brought with him. His brothers, all grown up now and looking quite like Heng, and the stoic-looking woman I assumed was his wife.

"Geeze, you're so mean!" Dib snapped, letting me help him to his feet.

"Dib! You're back!"

He leaned to one side to look around my leg and smiled as Xiu Chen and Jiū joined us. "Yeah, I am. Finally."

"Where were you for five years, anyway?" Avila asked, looking very annoyed with him. "Leaving with no warning like that, sheesh. You brat, you had us all so worried."

"I've been playing on the Western Continent, 'cause my little brothers and wife started there," he explained, waving a hand toward the others. An explosion suddenly happened, much like what happened when Jiū and I mentioned our wedding to the Odd Squad, and my team ran forward to greet his wife and "little" brothers—more like big brothers, no matter how you looked at them, but if Dib wanted to call them little, then whatever.

I crouched down in the grass next to Dib, and watched as the teams mingled together. "She's a lot like you," he remarked softly, "but a lot different, too. It's unexpectedly refreshing; I got to have fun and be a child with you, but I get to be childish and manly and everything else all at once with her. I feel all grown up." He smiled warmly toward the others. "We were just working together for so many years, then I finally got around to taking a proper look at her…Everything just sort of hit me in the face after that." Sighing, he glanced up at me. "I'm glad I looked. I love her so much."

"Yeah, I'm glad, too," I agreed, nodding. I wished it could have happened a lot sooner than it did. Things could have been a lot different if it had, but at least it had happened at all.

"By the way, how did you get here so fast?" I asked, frowning thoughtfully at him. "Doesn't it take nearly a week to sail between continents?"

"Oh, yeah. We already took the boat back to Central and arrived the day before yesterday," Dib replied with a small shrug. "Stumbling across you earlier at the park was an accident, really. I called your house a few weeks ago and talked to Wei Bo for a bit. Told him I was thinking of coming back, and he agreed. I made him promise to keep it a secret from the rest of you." With a playful laugh he smiled up at me. "Surprise!"

"Brat," I grumbled. "You should have told me, too."

"Didn't feel like it," he airily brushed off with another shrug and a smirk. Rolling my eyes, I shook my head and went back to staring at the others as they continued to chatter amongst themselves. It seemed that the Socks had gone from two, to six, to five, to ten. Hopefully our fluctuating number of teammates would stay steady from that point onward.

Briefly looking at Dib, I felt my face flush. He was still so adorable and tiny, if not more so. If that was possible. But that might have been from not seeing him for so long. Sometimes I felt myself mentally prodding Gao to grow up to look like Dib, just because of how cute he was. But Gao was still extremely cute, regardless of how he looked nothing like Dib. He did have Jiū's curly hair, though.

Without warning, I grabbed Dib by the arm and pulled him against me, hugging him tightly and ignoring his surprised gasp of "Huh?" that I squashed out of him while I pressed my cheek to the top of his head. The ticklish feeling of his curly hair brushing against my chin made me smile. "I missed you so much."

With a soft laugh, he wrapped his arms around my neck and patted the back of my head. "I missed you a lot, too."

Shutting my eyes, I took a steadying breath, once again fighting back the urge to cry when I whispered, "I'm sorry I made you leave."

"What? You didn't do that," he chided, shaking his head. "I mean, you were one of the reasons, but you didn't drive me away or anything like that. Geeze, was that what you were thinking this whole time? Stupid, you—Hey, stop that crying, you big baby! You're gonna make the others think I'm bullying you!"

Laughing, I hugged him tighter, using one hand to wipe my face off. "You were always bullying me in the past. Isn't this the same?"

"Shut up," he replied in amusement, pulling away from me slightly. He patted my cheek, smiling playfully. "I'm back, so stop blubbering."

I roughly rubbed my face, obediently stemming the flow of tears. "There. Are you happy now?"

"Very!" he chirped, twirling about to face the others. The meaningful smile he shot me afterward assured me that he was happy about more than my successfully stopped crying. That thought filled me with relief.

Rising to my feet, I briefly grinned down at Dib, then he and I went to join the others at last, heading away from Infinite City to train together. Taking off into the air again, I flew alongside Jiū, deeply inhaling the lovely air I soared through so high above the ground.

It felt like a lifetime ago that I'd been standing in the middle of my old office, wondering how I was supposed to spend my day off. Running the memories through my head, they were so unfamiliar. Like that hadn't been me. Like that had been the life of someone else.

But perhaps it really had been someone else. I certainly was no longer the man whose small world revolved around hopeless wishes for his father's approval. He started to disappear the day he went to buy himself a new computer hard drive, I supposed.

The me back then never would have imagined that anything that had happened would have happened. If someone had warned me of the events to come, I would have thought such things were completely ridiculous. Everything I'd experienced, everyone I'd met, everywhere I'd been. I wouldn't have believed any of it.

My life hadn't had any room for anything aside from my father. Not until my eyes had been opened to everything I hadn't seen before. Not until the clockwork leading me in endless circles, holding my life in place, had been broken, letting me step outside my boundaries.

And broken it had.

* * *

_I'm really gonna miss these guys! ;-;_

_Thank you very much, everyone who read this story. I had a ton of fun with it, and your encouragement kept me going. I hope you all enjoyed it as well. _

_Thinking back to when I was first writing chapter one, I never would have thought this would have grown so much xD It's three times as long, maybe even more than that, and much more in-depth than I was thinking it would be._

_And now—one last theme song! For Zian, over the course of the whole story, rather than just this chapter; Time & Again by a-ha. :D_

_The sun brought me. The moon caught me. The wind fought me. The rain got me._  
_The road sent me, for years bent me. And the stars overwhelmed me, time and again._  
_But now I can't see the stars, a star is a thing I can't see._  
_And now I don't feel the same, to feel is a thing that can't be._

_Love crushed me. Fame brushed me. The streets hushed me as life touched me._  
_Time plays me. Events daze me. Love saved me, now and again._  
_But now there can be no love, love is a thing that can't be._  
_And now there can be no trust, trust is a thing I can't see._  
_And now I can't be so strong, strong is a thing I can't be._

_Time and again._

_Until next time, fellow readers and writers~!_


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